The Legacy Of Simpsons Collectables (with The Simpsons Theory & @bartofdarkness)

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four Finger Discount family on Patreon. Hello, everybody, welcome to another episode
of four figure Discount Extra here on the fourth Finger Discount Network. I am
your host, Brendan Dando, and today I am joined by not one,
but two guests. Yes, these two lovely people have just announced the release
of their perfectly cromulent new book, It's Collecting Simpsons, the merchandise and legacy
of our favorite nuclear family. They are, of course, Lydia from The
Simpsons Theory and my man Warren Evans aka Butt of Darkness. So basically,
what was initially intended to just be a conversation promoting the book, it quickly
became just three Simpsons nerves from different corners of the globe or simply gushing over
at love of the show. Now need to warning, we recorded this at
midnight my time, So if I do sound a little bit rustier than usual,
you can play it on the time zone difference. But I really wanted
this conversation to happen, and I'm glad it did because it was a lot
of fun. I must say. A highlight for me was Warren describing the
time that he allowed one of his friends to go into his collectibles room and
that frame proceeded to spill a can of Simpsons energy drink all over his collectibles
and hilarity ensues for us anyway. But in all seriousness, though, be
sure to pre order their book. As I said, it's called Collecting Simpsons,
the Merchandise and Legacy of our favorite nuclear family. So availability right now
depends on where you currently live, so just give it a quick Google search
and I'm sure you'll find it. Also, be sure to subscribe to The
Simpsons Theory on YouTube and follow at Butt of Darkness on Instagram if you want
more lidiar and warrant in your lives. Also, if you enjoy this episode
and everything we do here, add four fink a discount. You can support
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our south Park podcast, and our Friends podcast as well. But for now,
thank you for tuning into the show. But it's time to sit back
and and join my conversation with Lydia and Warren. It is pretty cool,
isn't it. I just thought it was just like we're covering all bases of
the all corners of the world. It's like a whole triangle of Simpson nerd.
I know, you guys have been so accommodating though, Like Warren's the
Cracker door and you're there the other end of the Cracker dawn and yeah,
it's midnight here, kids are crying out there. I was like, well,
you every man from himself for you guys, just handle your sales tonight.
My wife's gone to sleep, So I think I feel like, clearly
you're gonna have to handle this this this episode here of four fisc extra because
it's midday for you, Warren. We've dragged him out of bed. I'm
being kept from bed. We're both half a seat. Yeah. See,
but this is don't let Dan go for you, because if there's one thing
I learned from the last episode, this is just what he lives for.
This like, my man is always on a microphone. I'm not you know,
I'm sure he takes it to bed with him, so I'm not falling
for the My wife is so jealous, but hey, what are you going
to do? She knew this when she married me. I was listening to
your last Carolinamine interview and it was so good. You asked such good questions.
Oh thank you. I actually was kind of proud of that one because
I listened to one of my first interviews. I did, like I've been
doing this in the early twenty years now, fifteen when I started on the
local radio show and my first interview, I'm constantly just interrupting the interviewee,
trying to sort of any awkward pauses. I'm just trying to fill it with
something. And with the Carol and Amine when it went up just today,
actually I'm listening to it and I was like, there was like seven or
eight straight minutes where it was just her talking, and I was like,
you have grown up. Brendan asked the question and just let them talk and
as part of what she sort of you can tell she's thinking of the next
thing to say, And some people would try and fill that gap with oh,
I know what you're trying to say. It's like no, no,
let her think, you know, And it's just I was just sitting there
listening to an editing going well done. It's really hard. It's really hard
to remind yourself that not ever, you know, Like when I first started
my podcast, I had a really hard time remembering that I could edit them.
So I would sit there and just like really obsess over like the timing
or like, you know, are they comfortable, do they know what to
say? Like you just like think about all these things. And then once
you realize that the natural flow will feel exactly that it'll feel natural, interviewing
gets a lot easier. So I noticed that at a point too where I
was like, no, just like you're talking to someone, don't forget how
to talk to someone just because it's being recorded. Yeah, exactly, have
a conversation, don't interview. Yeah. Yeah, that's really like what it
boils down to, because I think I used to always be like, no,
I'm the host, I have to be the host. I have to
like really you know, make sure I hit all my questions. And that's
just not that's just not how it works. Really, yeah, I gotta
listen to that. I love Carolyn. She's amazing. She was just telling
me all these insights and I was like, do you remember you really you're
being recorded now right? Yeah. She's been so candid. Yeah, you
get all the industry secrets exactly. But Lydia, I feel like I'm not
letting you speak. How are you? Oh, I'm very good, thank
you, yeah, very good. Like I've been quite nervous. I hardly
ever do podcasts, so like I had to really like, yeah, yeah,
I've got the feeling in my head that is like a job interview.
So I tend to but if I yeah, just cut me off if I
go on a bit, but no, no, no, Lydia does great.
Don't listen to her. She does just fine and great. Are they
books or board games behind you, by the way, or a combination.
I've got board games down here, yeah, book books up here, and
I've actually got your book right here. Well, you do so much.
I've got some Randy somewhere. I forget that I've got a book out there
half the time, and it's like, so what was I set it on
the shelf and I'm like, that's right. You released a book. You
should be proud of that. Ye look at us, Look at us,
guys. We've all made books. Aren't we contributing to We're contributing to the
zeitgeist. See I feel like you guys though, So you guys have clicked
and the Simpsons coming out. You guys MA made this happen where I was
just lucky where Penguin like, can you do this for us? And I
was like, I guess. So, so like let's go back to you
know, because your book. Actually, before we start that, you've just
announced that I finally it was like the worst kept secret in the world in
the Simpsons online community, but you got you finally announced your book. How
pre sale is going good? I think, yeah, yeah, I think
we're getting quite a few comments being like, oh, we've put our order
in and yeah, I think. I don't know what Warren thinks, but
I think, I mean, it seems to be very well, Like I'm
waiting to hear that actual number. So you don't you don't get like regular
updates or anything. I mean, Lydia can speak to this maybe on her
first book, they got more updates I think because it's maybe they wait for
the official release date, but I haven't seen a number. Yeah. So
just but to my own like you know, analytics or whatever, from my
own links and just like my own like posting about it, the response seems
to be fantastic. So I'm very I'm very humbled and and you know,
excited by the response. I guess I'm not humbled because it would I'd be
humbled if it was bad. But I'm excited about the Yeah, I'm excited
about the response so far. And people that have already gotten copies, like
early copies, what do you really love it? It's true. I think
it's just the US in Canada, and I don't understand how that's possible.
So to anyone listening, if you got your book already, can you tell
us how can you grab your copy Lydia so we can hold up to the
camera, just so I can see it and just describe how pretty it is.
I've actually got one, right, here's got one as well. We
can both do it. Oh, I need to hold up something, look
at I'm gonna hold up this because the kids were listening to this on the
record today. You know, I don't know if people know this about me.
In fact, they probably don't. I've probably mentioned it on my show
once or twice. But I also work in a record store, and I
can tell you, Brendan that records like kind of valuable. No ship,
Yeah, this and the A it's a good hundred dollars if it's in nice
condition. I got this for at A. We call them op shops here,
I guess you guys call them like, well, the opportunity shops like
it's you know, the shop where secondhand stuff thrift stores. Here. Two
Australian dollars, which is about one dollar American. That's how much why I
paid for it? Wow, amazing, amazed. The kids were, Oh,
who's on your cup lidier, I've got Star Wars, I've got the
Orlando Magic team. Did you go there? I can't. I can't remember
his name. I should know. I've been to several Magic games living in
Florida. But oh, are you a basketball man? Well, there we
go. Here's the book. I love basketball. Yeah, all right,
so we hold it it lego. No, what is that? Now?
That's the mc McFarland. Is it? What is it? Know these are
these are Hamilton, Hamilton Okay, yeah, well wait, yeah, what's
it's big? It reminds me of sort of like I'm trying to describe to
the listeners, when you get like a visual history of like a movie or
something, thick hard cover looks like it's worth the money you're spending. Yeah,
I got to say that. Now that I'm holding it in my hands,
I do believe, you know, because when we were making the book,
I will say we were very concerned about the price. We're like,
well, we don't want this thing to get so off the rails that it's
a price point that people might not want to pay. So the longer you
work on something and the bigger it gets, you become concerned. You're like,
well, you know, are we going to price ourselves out of this
thing? So we were very like, you know, that's something we thought
about all along the way, and I wanted, you know, we were
like, it just can't be more than fifty bucks. And if it's going
to be more than forty bucks, it has to really feel and look worth
that price point. And I'm happy to say that now that I have them,
I think it does call me crazy, but I won't drop money on
a book like that unless it's a hard cover. It's something about time.
For sure. Covers get bent and they chabby on the shelf, but hardcovers
you're like, Yep, it's worth it definitely, especially for the photos because
I think you need something which is going to preserve the images, and I
think the hard bag just does a really nice job of showing it off.
And we've spent so long on it. We wanted it to be a really
good product. So even the boundings yellow so little wow, which is two
years. So how did it all come about? So did who approached who
to get this happening? So I did Warren's podcast Simpsons Is Great then and
Warren was saying, oh oh, I was actually promoting our last book,
The Simpson's Secret, and Warren was really into doing something similar but with his
collection. And then me and James actually went to Subway and James was like,
how about we work with Warren to produce a book about Simpson's merchandise.
So then we went to Warren and he was really stoked about it, and
then we pitched it to our Mango Publishing, who did our last books where
they based Florida Florida again. Yeah, oddly enough, so Ora could literally
hop over there and say hello, yeah, and then it's just yeah,
line gone. It was crazy because it was crazy because when you know,
this is something I wanted to do for a long time, and it was
so serendipitous, uh that Lydia came to me with this idea because I I
had, you know, I had this group of Simpsons collectors that I've had
like a group chat with on Instagram for years at this point, and uh,
for a while, like, I really became obsessed with this idea of
like, you know, sort of doing something similar to what Robert's get to
what Robert Gets did, And I always, I always want to give Robert
Gets his flowers because when I interviewed him, he told me no one had
ever interviewed him. I was the first person who had ever interviewed him,
and no one really, you know, beyond the collector community, no one
really knew who he was or cared about his story. And I find Robert
to be such an interesting guy. I love that he wanted to make a
book like that in the late nineties when the Simpsons was still such a new
thing and he already saw the potential for this, you know, a book
about the merchandise. He just saw that this was like a good idea,
and those books are still like the Bible to so many collectors. I said
this to him. I was like, you don't understand, like, these
books are the reason so many people, including myself know about a lot of
this stuff, because there's not really a database anymore for this stuff outside of
your books other than just Google if you know what it's called, and you
can look for it. So talking to Robert, I really got wrapped up
in this idea of like, no, someone needs to do this, this
updated book. And Robert even joked with me that I or me or someone
should do one. So I told this group I was like, no,
I'm going to do a book someday. I'm not sure how or what I
want it to be, but I'm determined to take sort of what I do
with the Instagram and eventually do a book. And so this idea was like
so hot in my mind. But I was like, well, I'm working
on a lot of stuff, so you know, I got to get this
plan together and it was you know, within a year of that interview,
Lydia was like, hey, you know me and James were talking about this,
like would you want to do a book with us? And my immediate
response was like are you kidding? Of course, like you know what,
what's the plan? So it was just you know, not not to get
all you know, emotional, but it was like meant to be and I
you know, I'm glad I got to do it with James and Lydia.
They were like the perfect partners to make this book. So I'm really proud
of everything that came out of it. So if you need to do a
book about Australian fans, let's all work together and somehow make that happen.
Australia seems like the coolest place on earth to me. Seriously, it's like
one of my most I want to visit. Australia is so bad. I'll
ask you for some tips. Well, you look at to a couple of
beds, he can stay here, say or more ye sleep We're in the
same bed with like you know, kids and shit, right yeah, top
and tail, sleep with your microphone yeah yeah. So yeah. So basically,
Lydia, you went to Sideway, you had your lunch, you thought,
yeah, let's contact Warren. Made it happen. Then what do you
do? So what was the first step to make in this book a reality?
You obviously approached and they said, yes, go out and make this
book. What was the first first thing you guys did? You sat down
and mapped out what you're going to do, because you said to me,
Warren that you age did sections or something, So who did what? Yeah?
So the first thing we did was we hopped on a call and we
wanted to vaguely cover everything we wanted to do in this book because obviously Simpsons
merchandise, it spans across everything and decades, so we wanted to focus on
particular niches to like fashion, toys, comics, kind of segment it like
that. But after doing the initial plan, we then started to flesh out
a bit more as and when Warren and Caroline took photos, we could then
write around the photos we had. But yeah, lots of back and forwards
across time zones and Zoom, Like this book should be sponsored by Zoom because
it did a lot of the legwork for us. But this technology I have
never heard of riverside. But yeah, so but yes, continue sorry oh
yeah yeah, yeah so so yeah, so we had the vague plan and
then we each started writing our own sections because we wanted to have our own
tone of voice. But we didn't want to talk for all three of us
because we'd start talking about memories that, you know, Warren didn't necessarily have
or James necessarily had. So we decided the best way to go about it
was to each pick our topics. So Warren had toys to kick everything off
with, which was really good because it had the timeline across how that merchandise
changed, and then I took fashion, James took comics, and then we
distributed the other chapters amongst ourselves, which made it easier when we wanted to
swap each other's work because it kind of segmented it a bit, so we
weren't looking at one big chunk of writing. And yeah, hopefully it works
really well, and it's quite nice. At the beginning of every chapter,
it's got our names, so you can kind of tell whose memories are which,
And yeah, it made it a lot easier, I think. I
think if we try to do it any other way across continents, it just
wouldn't have worked. So this was the best. Yeah, So did you
include absolutely everything that you could or was it just a case of with h
category picked the most notable. Well, it's crazy because you know, and
I love what Lydia said about because that was sort of our thinking of,
like, well, if we're gonna speak from a personal place, people need
to know who this is coming from. And like, while I feel like
our writing compliments each other very well and it feels cohesive, it just makes
sense to know who is telling you about each things. So I really,
I really like the way she put that. But you know, at first,
I was like, all right, I'm going to try to make note
of all the stuff that people kind of know about, the big ones,
you know, you have the Playmates, Dandy Mattel, like the stuff that
people really know. But I'm also along the line gonna gonna use my collector
brain and say, well, there's also some other things that collectors always talk
about, so like more known things among just like collectors, so street kids
or you know, McFarlane or Hamilton or whatever. So I was like,
I have to find a balance, because if I try to talk about every
toy, you know, we're screwed. Like we're never gonna get there.
It's impossible. And and at that point, if you miss anything it's a
big deal because it looks like you're trying to do everything, and so you
just open yourself up to more scrutiny. So we sort of accepted early on,
like let's tell the story of the stuff that we can and let's just
show people, No, this was a crazy thing. Like no matter what
people feel about the Simpsons or when they got off the train, they have
to realize like, no, this is like, no, very few people
on earth, very few companies did what the Simpsons did, like they they
did it all like everything you know, for your house, for your bathroom,
for your kitchen. It's like a crazy thing. Yes, I would
love to know, like if someone has actually done the math to see who
has more, it has to be one of the most merchandise things, if
not top three, of all time. So we just wanted to show people
that, like no, like there's this whole culture around the fashion, around
the bootlegs, there's all these fast foot you know, fast food promotions,
there's all these comics, there's all these books. So we just wanted to,
you know, open that up because collectors know, but there's also stuff
that collectors don't know about, and there's a lot of stuff that just the
general public don't know about. So if anything, this is like an introduction
to that world. Yeah, And the way I approached my fashion chapter,
I thought, well, there's no way it's interesting enough to talk about every
single Simpsons T shirt. So I chose like the band bought Simpsons T shirt
and how it sets the tone of Bart mania in the early nineties, and
then I was able to then link that to the exposure of bootleg Bart merchandise
and then lead that into like how streetwear was partly inspired by the Simpsons,
because that was also a subgenre of fashion that was really come into fritition in
the early nineties. So like, the way I approached this fashion chapter was
I kind of picked four key products and then linked them in a way,
and then if there was a story which I found really interesting about one item,
then I'd probably just have that by itself. But otherwise I tried to
make it quite Yeah. Yeah, linear, I think if you guys tried
to include everything as well, you did and you wouldn't be able to.
Like you said, but you get like the genius of work saying, well,
you do realize that you missed this, you know, collectible from nineteen
ninety seven, like you just you don't you want to avoid that at all
costs. It's just here's more like a loving tribute to merchandise as opposed to
every and don't don't get it twisted. Like I've already been hard on myself
about this book at times, because you know, you work on something for
so long, you start to obsess over it and you want every little thing
to be perfect, which is impossible with anything that you do. It goes
back to what we said about podcasts, Like in the beginning, you're like,
no, this has to be perfect every episode. I have to do
it a certain way, I have to edit it a certain way. It
just has to be perfect. And so, you know, I could look
back at the book today and go, well, you know, maybe I
could have done this, or maybe I could have taken this and turn it
into its own chat. You know, you start thinking of all you sort
of what they say here in America Monday Morning quarterback, where you like you
explain all the things your team did wrong on Sunday to everyone else, like
you're on the team. So there's things that I you know, you can
always find like oh what if we did this, or what if we did
that. But when you're working with a property this large, you just have
to cover what ground you can in a way that makes sense. And I
love you know, like Lydia said, the chapter about fashion is not so
much about the history of the of the fashion in terms of like here's a
shirt, here's a shirt, here's a shirt. It's like telling you stories
that maybe you don't know about, like what a controversy that early merchandise was
for the show. And so I think the book weaves that in in a
nice way where it's like, no, there is a timeline, there is
like history about the different factions of merch but there's also you know, it's
not just a collector guide, it's it's stories and history as well. So
there is like you know, I think you walk away and you learn something,
or it looks nice on your coffee table when you just look at the
beautiful photos that are friend Caroline Walker Evans took. So that's the other thing.
It's kind of serves two purposes. If you want to just look at
cool photos, there's a lot of that. There's pages that have no words,
so you kind of have a little bit of everything in this book.
And I think that's why, regardless of anything, you know, we're super
proud of how it turned out. So it's kind of like the visual history
of since it mechandise, and that's what you're saying essentially, when it's just
it tells the story of it. Yeah, and especially like it, you
know, in a broad way, because you have to show people like there
were times where there were there were and as much merch you know, there
were times where you know, there was a lull in this or a lull
in that, and there was a lot more of this and less of that.
And I think that that's why you have to talk about not just the
toys, but you have to talk about the comics, you have to talk
about the books, you have to talk about all these little the video games.
You have to talk about these little facets that some people. You know,
I've talked to a million people even since the book has been done,
and they'd been like, wow, you know, I didn't realize there were
this many video games, and so especially especially and I will say like some
chapters cover more ground than others, Like we we do talk about basically every
video game, because at that point, it's like why skip over one if
you're going to talk about most of them anyway. So there, you know,
there's moments where we get super deep into it, but then there's moments
where it is kind of skipping around and just showing you the scope. And
I think that that mix kind of works. There will still be someone out
there, I'm confident that will complain that I didn't talk more about X,
Y or Z. But that's you know, you do what you can.
If this book were any bigger, it wouldn't fit on a shelf. So
that's a good way to put it. Give us a tea, Give us
a teas Lydia. So you mentioned the band bart shirt there, give us
a little bit of a little story there, like why was the band and
what was the shirt? So in nineteen ninety I believe it was a scol
in a hio called Likes Lots Elementary and basically this principles called Principal Crumb Now
something Principal Crumb Now and he was sitting behind his desk and he had loads
of complaints from parents about this new show, The Simpsons, and I think
within like the PTOs and stuff, it was a big discussion into it.
If this is a good influence on our kids, and it got to the
point where the principal finally put his foot down and he saw that there was
this growing number of kids in the school that would wear these Bart Simpson t
shirts. And there was one in particular that said underachiever and proud of it.
And it's got him holding a slingshot directly at the person looking at it.
And for him, he felt like it was a big political statement,
which is partly why I think the kids were drawn to it, because there
was no other character before that had that presence. But yeah, they just
saw it as like needless rebellions, and they banned it, and then it
got banned across different states across America. And there's a really funny article by
ABC News where they interviewed different children about what they thought about it. And
you had like a Bart Simpson kid who had like the backwards cab. He
probably had like a sling shot in his pocket and he was like, we're
not going to act like Bart Simpson. And then you had like a goodie
goody, really lovely boy who was just like you shouldn't you should be proud
of being an underachiever. It was a really interest. And then also you
had the Simpsons reactions of it. I think Nancy Cartwright spoke to Warren about
partly why Bart was so frightener he was so threatening to parents, yeah and
yeah, so yeah so. But luckily, I think as it died down,
I think because that was the spark of the popularity of The Simpsons,
and then as people were starting to get more and more not numb, but
desensitized to it as a cartoon, it kind of like, like, I
don't know, it just kind of set up, isn't the funny? How
like teens had Kirk Cobain and kids had Bart Simpson. Yes, I mean
listens. As the one American on this call, I can say I remember
that very well. And uh, you know, my brother was a little
older than me and my mom, you know, we grew up with a
single mom and I've told this story of my podcast before, so she didn't
really have a lot of time to monitor what we were watching. I might
have even said this to Brendan, but like she bought us Bart shirts because
she was like, oh, this is what the kids like. And uh,
you know, my mom also is very cool, and she she never
really bought into like the alarmist stuff like you know when people were saying like,
oh, video games make your kids violent, or music makes your kids
violent, or TV show everywhere everything major kids violent or angryer vegetables, Mackey
kids bond right. My mom never really bought into that, and I give
her a lot of credit in that regard. So, but I remember like
teachers getting very mad about these shirts and being like, you need to turn
that inside out or you know. I don't think my school banned them,
but it was like a huge you know, kids got in trouble for wearing
certain shirts because again, and I can sort of understand as an adult,
why maybe you don't want your kid wearing a shirt that says I'm Bart Simpson,
Who the hell are you to school? As cool as I think it
is, I can understand why some parents are like, hey, maybe we
need to see what this shows about you know. So that but that's it's
all lost to time now because then we got South Park and Family Guy,
and now The Simpsons feels like a kittie cat in a zoom, So it's
nothing. It's funny. I went through my old family album the other day
and as a fano of it would be what nine year old me, so
I'm like, I'm not a little kid, but I'm still a kid,
and I'm wearing this Cottman ship that just says kick ass. And I'm like,
what we thinking? Like, you wouldn't be watched the Simpsons tall six
wear a kick ass ship with cotton on it? What? Was it?
A really formal family portrait as well? Yeah, but it's funny how you
sort of touching on the bandbox. So that's just basically what they're obviously touching
on in Team Homer with a damn with homework. Yeah. Yeah, people
people were different back then. Man, They like really got worked up about
this sort of thing. And I think it's like an interesting part of our
of you know, culture, uh in general, that there's always gonna be
these things that make people mad. I mean, they blamed beave us some
butthead for like a kid lighting his mom's trailer on fire, they blamed the
show for that. And you know, obviously some kids are gonna be You
can you can impress upon a child, like an idea if they grow up
in a in a certain circumstance, things are gonna affect them. But also
kids are pretty smart, man, Like I have two friends that are teachers
and kids are smarter than ever, and I think that this idea that like
they they believe everything they see to be something they should do, or like
you know, the kids are just immediately tricked into believing everything they see.
I just think I'm glad to see that that's sort of you know, changing
as the narrative like people are like, no, actually, kids are pretty
bright and they like they understand this stuff earlier than you think they do.
So I think that that's a cool thing about the shifting you know, existence
we have. Also, I think around that time you also had like even
the president of the United States was saying something like being more like the Walton's
less like the Simpsons. So I guess the adults which the news would see
that and be like, oh my god, they're a danger to our society.
And hopefully now people are a lot less I don't know, impressionable to
like the politic the political view of a president. So yeah, I mean
he also only won one term, so no one likes being that graining at
that time, just like you know, you little and then you're on the
news for you you're causing a revolution with children, you know. The presidents
told me about you. That's just it's amazing wild and so early too,
yes, so early into the show, you know, it's just nuts and
it kind of quickly didn't just drop off, but like the fad came and
went so fast. You know, I don't understand what causes that other than
you know, I think the more parents saw the show, they realized that
that things like that shirt were like, you know, obviously they were present
in Bart's personality, but they were not the point of the show. It's
not like every episode was Bart like destroying something or you know, terrorizing his
teacher. I think people started to realize the heart the show actually had,
and so that initial outrage sort of just died down. And I think that's
like that happens with a lot of shows, is people just assume things based
on like one metric. Yeah, a question we get asked all the time.
I'm gonna let you answer. I'm sick of of saying it in my
inbox, so you just tell the listeners, now, Warren, why was
it a blue shirt? And don't orange shit? Okay, Well, I'm
actually glad that you that you asked that, because we do. I talk
about that a little bit in the book because I think that main point of
confusion comes from just just this assumption that people had for a long time that
like that was a bootleg carryover, and in reality, like the earliest versions
of Bart, like the way Matt drew them in the beginning, like he
wore a blue shirt, like his initial design, he had a blue shirt
on. And I think what it really boils down to is that in those
early days, and Bill Morrison told me this as well, licensees were just
they wanted more options. They wanted to be able to like, you know,
well, you know, a red shirt or an orange shirt doesn't really
work with our packaging. Can we can we change that? Can we do
something else? And back then the show was so new, they just didn't
see why not. And also because the show didn't fully exist yet, like
people got to remember they were outside of the shorts, like you know,
there weren't a lot of reference for these toys, and they started developing,
especially like companies like Dandee they started, you know, developing these toys in
eighty nine, if not sooner. So the show wasn't even on TV yet,
and so this whole thing about the shirt just didn't seem like a big
deal. And if they're looking at reference and they're looking at things that do
exist, they're like, oh, this blue shirt looks nice. That would
probably look nicer on the packaging against this green background or against this white background.
So it really was just a product of being so early, and I
think beyond that, they used it in the comics and certain things for a
while because they just could, and it just was like, oh, it
kind of separates this universe a little bit. So, yeah, you used
to read online that that it was like a way to trick bootleggers, like,
oh, they'll know the real ones have a blue shirt, and that's
all made up. I don't know who came up with that theory, but
there's like no truth to that at all. It was truly just they had
a more laid back attitude. Then, have you done a video on that
theory yet? Video? No, not yet, but being more gonna do
a video where they're gonna be on boxing it and talking about it. So
I think we should probably pick out the most not the most interesting, but
like things like that the Simpsons fans really want to know and probably have mixed
messaging about, so I think we should definitely do I think that's a good
idea that. I mean, it's funny that Brennan talks about getting that question
a lot, because that used to be like the most common question I would
get asked. Like it's such a point of of you know, confusion for
people when it comes to the merchandise. But if I'm being honest, I
think it's more funny that people are always so confused about the blue shirt.
But no one talks about how Bart's shirt was originally orange and over time it
became red, and no one talks about that, And personally, I prefer
the orange and wish it was still orange like on the show. Now it's
just it's tomato red. But in those early seasons it was straight up orange.
I swear it's a little orange or in your I mean maybe maybe it's
a blue dress white dress thing. I'm going to I'm going to google Bart
Simpson's season thirty five and see what comes up. Right now, Yeah,
because if you look at him next to Lisa, now they're wearing the same
color. But if you go back and look at like, you know,
Barth the Genius or something, it's it's orange. I mean I'm looking at
it. It's a very different. It's not not a light orange, but
it's a it's a little off Lisa's dress, but it's it's yeah, it's
almost like a salmon. Yes it is. Yeah, it's not. It's
not the light orange from the first season like you're saying now it is now
it is like bright red. It's like, you know, really really really
red. Speaking to thirty five, you guys been watching it keeping up the
date. Absolutely, I've watched the first three. I haven't watched TSAR yet.
It doesn't drop till time. Are we sure that we want to talk
about this so we don't alienate listeners or because I go, okay, I'll
take if you don't want to listen to us talking about that, go and
never return. There you go, Well, I will say this, and
I'll take a quick aside from just the general discussion in the book and all
that to talk about one thing. Anyone listening to this, and I'm gonna
address this on my show as well. This is this has been driving me
nuts. Anyone that believes this whole fake story going around about how Homer's not
going to strangle Bart anymore, Let me just put it. Let me just
put that, Let me put your mind at ease. It's clickbait. It's
not real. Uh, Homer hasn't really strangled Bart in a few seasons anyway,
But there was no decision to like stop doing it. It's just how
many times do you need to see that joke? But literally, in the
next episode following the one where people claimed he announced he wasn't gonna do it
anymore, he did it. So to anyone that believed that article, it's
not real. And I made a post about this the other day that I
actually archived because the comment section got so out of hand. Mostly positive,
I will say, but there were just some some people got it to their
second or third burner account and we're just really good under my skin. So
I took it. I took it down after I made my point. But
this is like such a big topic in the community now I feel the need
to say it here on four Finger Discount. It's not real, no,
of course. But the new season is good. There's like, you know,
there's been episodes of like more than other ones, but it's been solid.
There's been a lot of clickbait as well. If the Simpsons have killed
off a famous character and it's like it's trans of Horria idiot, but they
don't know the show. It's it's just some intern. He's probably never watched
the Simpsons. That's the thing. I was thinking about this the other day.
I'm like, are we going to be the last generation that really watched
the Simpsons? Because like my son, he's not going to be raised on
the Simpsons unless I actually force it down his throat. So like, will
the Simpsons even be a thing in twenty years? You know? Yeah?
Well, James's nephew, Xavier, he loves the Simpsons and because you show
him though, because you show him exactly. Yeah, he never waited for
it at like a certain time every week. Yeah, but he still enjoys
it. And we like buying him the comics now, so hopefully we can
pass the torch. Are you getting your kids to? Why? Kids?
Now? So we're dancing to I was holding this up to seeing the Blues
alopit listens, That's all I was holding it before for you guys, because
the kids were dancing around to it. And then Elliott today goes, can
I start doing your Simpsons show with you? And I was like, oh,
my heart, you should. Oh we're going to Yeah, we're going
to start doing just like a daddy son show. I mean, it's not
going to be a really in depth podcast, which is going to be father
and son talking about The Simpsons, him me reliving him watching the show for
the first time. You know, amazing. I love that idea. Brennan
cannot stay off the Mac, like I said before, he's obsessed with the
Mac. I will say, Man, I kind of feel the opposite.
I do think that young kids love the show and the I see. To
me, the evidence is in the fact that it's still you know, rates
as well as it does. Because that can't all just be people like us,
Like I know that there's like younger generations that love Bob's Burgers and they
love these other animated shows that are more recent that still watch the show,
and they probably I've noticed in years past there are kids of a certain age
that prefer newer seasons. They think they look better, the jokes are more
for them. And this is like an argument that I've made so many times
to like old bitter idiots that have nothing better to do than complain in comment
sections about new Simpsons. It's not all for us, like the episodes that
we loved as kids are because we were kids, they speak to our generation
watching it. Yeah, that's it totally, And those jokes are for our
generation. As the show grows, those jokes can't always be for us,
Like it might annoy us that they make an episode about like you know,
twitch streaming or TikTok or something, but that's what kids are into. Like
do you want them to only make jokes about like Richard Nixon? Like to
me that just like that idea is so broken that you think the show has
to only be for you at all times and that's why you hate it.
So that's you know, that's another thing that, like making a book like
this, you have to navigate is like will this attract everyone or will it
just attract people like me? So like we really try to think about that
in terms of the book too. So that's that's the ever you know,
the ever going battle of being a Simpsons fan in twenty twenty three. But
if you haven't watched the show recently, though, it's definitely worth watching the
new season because you can genuinely tell that they're putting in It's a whole sort
of mentality shift of the show. I feel like it's gone back to It's
not back to its roots, but kind of back to its roots where it
feels like, you know, home is not the ignorant husband anymore. They
feel like a loving family again. Yeah, yeah, I think a lot
of that has to do with like Carolinamine may have having a bit more input.
I guess she's stepping away from being a co show or whatever. It
seems to be a really nice balance between the really funny episodes as well as
like the really family yea heart wrenching ones and yeah, Midchild is my dream,
like would go down as like one of my favorite March stories. It
was so good. I actually feel like going back and revisiting because I hadn't
watch The Simpsons as often as I used to since I've been doing the show
as well. Same Wren, But I feel like now being not just a
parent but also just a husband and revisiting those first nine seasons, I feel
like I'll just experience them through a whole new set of eyes, because you
know, I'll relate more to the Homer and Marge stories now than the Bart
and Lisa ones. Same totally. It's such an interesting thing about the show
is that I think you grow with the characters, and you know, That's
something that I've said before too. I think you appreciate different things about the
show that order you get. Like when I was a kid, I obviously
didn't care as much about Lisa. In fact, she probably annoyed me a
little bit when I was little, Like I was like, oh, you
Bart's you know, I'm like Bart and Homer's funny. You know, he's
dumb and my just mom when we all love Mountain. Yeah, right,
the older I get, I'm like, no, Lisa is the best character.
She's the most well rounded and grounded character, and you know, no
bias here. I love Yardley. I also think she's one of the best
actors on the show, and it just her delivery is always so special.
But I think you appreciate that kind of stuff more, and you appreciate the
side characters more. You appreciate these little elements of the story more the older
you get, because when you're a kid, you're just like, oh,
Bart made something explode. That's so funny. And I think that's what's so
special about it and why people should revisit seasons they thought that they hated.
Because also if you thought you hated season fifteen or season sixteen or whatever it
is. You know, who knows where you were at in your life when
that season was on, you might go back to it now and be like,
damn, this is actually pretty good. And I've heard people have that
exact experience. So I think that that is like one of the reasons people
have to like change this narrative that the Internet has convinced them of is because
it wouldn't still be here if no one cared. Uh, and this whole
like it's already dead blah blah blah, like stop, Like if it were
already dead, then they wouldn't still get people wouldn't still watch it, and
we wouldn't be in season thirty five. And that's why I laugh so much
when people go, well, at this point, it's just about money,
and I go, well, if no one's likely been, how is it
making money? Yeah? How how is it making money if nobody watches it?
Like, your own argument collapses when you say that it makes no sense.
The whole point of a show is to make money, though, So
what is your point? Sure? Yeah? Yeah, like what you think
that they like they made these in their garage. It's a real show.
Of course, of course, money is an element, you know, yes,
yeah, but I feel like you want to talk about to the book
or do you want to keepalking about season thirty five? Ye, let's talk
about the book. I You know, anyone that's listened to me before knows
that when I get on this topic, I can go, well, it's
just because it's just because they brought up the choking thing, right, And
it's like, we're currently reviewing season eighteen. We've got an chronologe glorder,
right, so we're on season eighteen at the moment, and he's barely doing
it then anyway, and when he does do it, Guy and I are
both like, this GAG's so old and stupid. Why are we still doing
this in season eighteen? Yeah, people are annoyed that they apparently he supposedly
stopped doing it in season thirty five. It's like it was it's a stupid
joke anyway, Why do you care as a joke? And the fact that
the people complaining don't watch the show anyway, so why exactly why do you
care? Exactly? Yes, all those people that click that article about strangling,
but they're the same people that probably click about, you know, the
simptons to predicting the future. It's just like a quick yes, just to
jump on the bandwagon again. I don't know, right, No, you're
exactly rightly, that's what it is. These people are just already mad,
and they're like, see, I told you it sucked. It's becoming this,
and it's becoming that these people are not The show hasn't been for them
ever. Really, yeah, it's me. But so with your fashion section
of the book, Lydia, do you own many Simpsons shirts or dresses or
anything. Do you own much Simpsons clothing yourself? Well, I really want
Warren's vintage T shirts because I've only really got one, and my oldest two
thousand and one, so it's not very old. But I look at all
the collections from like H and M and Adidas or Addidas, and yeah,
I've got a few. I've got a few, but I can't say that
my collection is as amazing as Warren's. I've got like a few random jumpers,
but typically when I go into the stores, they tend to just put
like the PNG's that we see on Google images on a T shirt or embroidered
onto a jumper, right, and they don't have that special color combination that
the older ones do or the designs. So if I saw a really good
one, like I've got a cute like pink Krusty one cycling on a bike
embroidered there, then I would. Otherwise I've got some I'm going to keep
an eye out for you, Lydia. Don't worry. I'll eventually find some
stuff that I can pass on to you. I'll work on that. I
mean, one thing I will say that's interesting about the merchandise is that if
you really dig deep, you'll realize that the team will admit that they were
taking notes from bootleg culture. Because the bootlegs happened so early, they sort
of realized, like, no, people like this sort of edgy rough thing.
And I think that's another reason that that early merch is so special,
because they they understood like who wanted it and what who was attracted to that
sort of energy. So I think it's one of the coolest things in history
is that merch. And I wish that mine didn't just sit in a drawer.
You wear it, wear proud. Some of them. I just can't
bring myself to like I have some like I have a Bartman, like the
original Bartman shirt in nineteen eighty nine with the tags still on it, like
I just can't. I can't wear that, Like I have to just keep
that to put in a time capsule or something. What would you do if
your lovely wife just accidentally the tag off that one day and I'll chuck it
through the wash? Uh? You know, I don't like to think about
the sort of breakdown that I would have in that in that moment. Yeah,
yeah, I've had I've I had a friend once come over and check
out the room, and uh, you know, a long story shorty,
he accidentally knocked over an energy drink that was sealed, and it exploded mostly
onto my cabinet of Simpson shirts. Most of the really rare ones were safe.
A couple of them had to be washed. It's kind of funny,
but it's not. It's kind of funny trying to envision the situation in your
face and him panicking and just like a Benny Hill show, just so I
kept telling him like, no, it's fine, don't worry about it,
It's totally okay. And in the moment when he was gone, I was
like freaking out. It was bad. And to this day I still find
residue on like random toys from that energy drink. Dude, it's fine,
it's fun. Why are you throwing up? Why are you throwing up?
It could have just been nuclear energy drink that just fizzles everything, it disintegrates.
So then now I got rid of every energy drink after that. I
took them all. I put them all on the ground. Ye. I
was like, this can never happen. So I'm not, no, how
did that happen? Take me through that situation. So you've invited a friend
of Hi'm assuming gonna be a very special person to be allowed in the room
in the first places. As long as you're not an idiot, I'll let
you in. But uh, yeah, so he gets in and uh he's
just looking around, and he's looking very intently, and you know, he
like leans. I will say. At the time, I had like more
stuff on the ground than usual because I was like sort of reorganizing some stuff.
So he did have an op stackle or two, I will say.
But he was, you know, looking around very intently and just kind of
checking everything out, and he just like his elbow just grazed this duve energy
drink that was on like this sort of like duff section of a shelf that
I have and it hit the ground and just you know, volcano just exploded
out of the top. Your instant thought at that moment, what do you
what's going through your mind at that As soon as you say that happening,
I honestly probably I was probably frozen for a good, like, you know,
sixty seconds, just like unable to move or talk. But I just
immediately grabbed towels and was trying to like, I don't think. It's honestly
one of the most anxious moments of my life, because I didn't really know
what to do. Like I was like, now I'm gonna to take all
this out in this corner and clean it. And then I realized it was
on some of the shirts. It was like, I'm not gonna say it
was like one of the worst days of my life. But it's like not
far off the top ten, you know, It's like it's in the top
fifteen. Probably. I've kept it from when I was a kid. Right,
I've got like an original megazo parentage Megazot that I had since I was
a kid, So I've got that ninety three, right, So we're talking
what thirty years. You know, I showed my son Alliott last year he
was like four at the time, and he holds it and then I kid
you not little shit had it for like twenty seconds and he snapped the leg
off. And I'm like, thirty years I had this. You took less
than thirty seconds to break it. It's just it's gone in an instant.
And my wife's like, what do you expect this four? And I'm like,
I know. I got it when I was four, and I managed
to keep it for thirty years. I managed to not destroy it in thirty
years and it took him thirty But it's like unbelievable. I can relate to
I can relate to your feeling. It's like I don't want to yell.
I'm not angry. I'm just really sad. But I don't want to make
it again. I want him in the face. I have to. I
mean I could, but just didn't, you know. But I was like,
it's not because he starts, He's like good break at My first reaction
was what are you doing? He's like God. I'm like, oh God,
calm down, Brendan. It's okay. Well see that's the thing though,
that's like, and I think I will say this about the book that
is like another reason I wanted to make a book like this because there's a
lot of things that people had as a kid that they don't have anymore,
and they probably forgot that they even had it. Like they're like, oh
my god, I forgot all about this Burger King doll. H this was
my favorite doll. I used to take it to my grandma's house, you
know, whatever it may be. And so I said along the way making
this book that like, I wanted to unlock those memories for people, Like
not everyone had playmates, not everyone had the Motel toys, and everyone had
X, Y or Z, but a lot of people would go, oh
my god, I had one of these like camping, you know, Simpsons
figures from Burger King, and it's gonna have memories attached to it. It's
gonna unlock this sort of fuzzy feeling for them, and I want to I
want to remind people. It's in the same way that my Instagram has been
able to do that. And that's like one of the reasons I kept doing
it from the start is it's it's like, uh, you know, it's
an encyclopedia of memories for some people, and I think that that you know,
not everyone needs another book on the shelf, but you want something that's
going to unlock that feeling. I think we all want that. So that's
that's that's one of my main points that I want to make with this thing
is just to remind people what they no longer have or you know, their
kid broken thirty seconds. I think I asked you that when we were chatting.
It was like, do you think you have more followers of people who
just are remembering the stuff with Naraqido actual Simpsons collectors? Yeah, yeah,
I'd be curious to know, like in Lydia's case, if it seems like
it's people who you know grew up with the show, or if it's people
who are learning about the show through her. I wonder what's your comment section,
Like Lydia, Well, we looked at the age demographic because I kind
of track that every month, and it's funny that, like one of our
biggest demographics is the thirteen year olds to the seventeen year olds, and we
have yeah, yeah, so it's very young and we have quite a lot
of people. Going to sound really big headed, but they say, I've
started watching the symptoms through your videos. Amazing. Yeah, which is the
biggest compliment, and we make sure to tell Matt Selman that we're like yeah,
but no, no, no, so as you should yeah yeah,
so yeah. I think like the comment section definitely ranges, like it depends
on the video topic. Like some people just want the really fun shouty I
don't know, fun content we do, but then we do more the analytical
stuff where you get the more maybe thoughtful comments from fans that are more hardcore.
It just really varies. Like I like that our channel kind of caters
for the casual fans, the new fans, and then hopefully the fans who
think that they're getting something out of the channel. And I mean I think
that's I think that's good information for our you know what we're saying about our
kids, you know, are we the last generation? No? I mean
like clearly if that people, if people that young are are such supporters of
your channel, I think that says a lot. Yeah, And I think
especially we're like releasing shorts, which are one of our biggest highest performer pieces
of media at the moment, with TikTok and YouTube shorts. I think just
people reacting to that kind of content now where it's just very short, fiery,
and it gives you a little taste of what the show is and then
hopefully that encourages people to watch the full episode. Do you feel like your
channel grows from doing shorts or the sort of dislike the same? We literally
within I think within the last six months, I think we've got about one
hundred thousand subscribers on the Sipson theory through doing shorts. Is it showing on
views on the videos? It's showing through well a little bit. It kind
of trickles through. We did have one thing where as soon as we uploaded
a short, it actually completely tanked the long form videos. And I think
YouTube is really encouraging people to keep uploading shorts, so if you then upload
a long form they're thinking, oh, please don't do that again, like,
let's get shorts in front of That's why I ask, because I've had
a lot of content creators say to me ever since I started doing shorts,
it's gained them a lot of followers, but the views have actually dropped on
their long form videos because YouTube doesn't want you to watch those anymore. They
want you to watch shorts, and people just want to watch shorts, so
they'll flick through your shorts, but they won't sit down for your long form
videos and that's not Yeah, it's interesting, definitely, Yeah, because it's
difficult because with our other channel, Lydia Love's Timelines, at one point that
was performing better than the Simpsons channel, so we started doing more long form
videos on that one, and we didn't want to risk that happening, so
we just ended to keep the shorts to the Simpsons to kind of experiment a
bit and see which one was working better. But yeah, I agree,
like the subscribe account has gone higher, the views seem to have gone higher,
but that doesn't really reflect in Google Ads sense and stuff like that.
But really that's not Yeah, how can that be because people are more people
paying premium now and you're not getting them AD revenue as a result, I
guess. So all, when you're scrolling through shorts, you never I think
especially YouTube shorts, you may get one ads every so often, but it's
not as consistent as like a long form video. We can get like five
ads in a consistent video. So yeah, good to that sense. See,
that's why you just have to be like me and just like refuse to
expand into the other apps. I'm just gonna live in my little box of
Instagram and uh no, I really need to like jump on that. I
just, uh you know, maybe I'm maybe I'm scared. Yeah, it's
like you know, your Grandpa and all the other apps are just the clouds
and you're just checking them. Well, you tend to stay where you where
you start, you know, Like I started this whole thing on Instagram,
so it's like hard for me to like leave. I always acted like I
would never do a TikTok, but I want to like expand into that a
little bit. I've seen that be a great growth point for people, and
again, like I you know, to that same point. I want,
you know, if if something like Lydia's channel has been such an introduction for
people, I want the book to do that too. Like I hope someone
is like, oh, you know, I used to watch this when I
was kid, and then before you know it, they're watching newer seasons.
They maybe get a little shelf with collectibles, Like I love things that inspire
like a new hobby. So like I want, you know, I want
this to do that as well. I want the book to do that.
That's why when we started our podcast, it was before Simpsons were available on
streaming well in Australia and the UK anyway, because Disney Plus wasn't a thing,
and it was just it wasn't it isn't a fun to go back and
revisit the Simpsons. And that's what we sort of did. We wanted people
to just talk about the Simpsons again. That's where we sort of took off.
It was just like, hey, I love the Simpsons too. We
all love the Simpsons. Yeah, it's great show of all time, definitely
easy. Yeah, what would you say was the most exciting part of the
book for both of you? Like, what's the part? When you think
of it now, it's like, this was the most fun. I smile
whenever I think about doing it because I know, I mean I've done a
book as well. I know it's along sometimes boring, sometimes you know,
intimidating process and nerve wracking, But like, what's the part that you just
had so much fun doing? Think? Oh? Think? For me personally,
I think it was the creative control of actually designing the page layouts.
We were really lucky to have some amazing photographs from Caroline Walker Evans and that
was my first big excitement moment was seeing those photos because they were beautiful and
it was like so impressive. So it was really nice to work with those
to produce the layouts. And I think, yeah, I think for me
just seeing the layouts and actually seeing that printed in a book, because I've
never worked in an industry where I had that kind of creative, creative freedom,
and yeah, for me, that was amazing. Yeah, yeah,
that's I agree with that. I mean, I will say, you know,
shout out to Elena, the designer at Mengo, who gave us a
lot of freedom, and she took our notes really well and at times,
you know, if we had a particular vision for a chapter, she just
let us run with it and she would use you know, we would make
changes, and she would use those changes almost exactly because she knew we had
a particular vision. So I do really appreciate that she gave us that sort
of input. You know, I think for me, because you know,
writing a book is one thing, and it's it's you know, it's you
read that you read it over and over until you hate it, and it's
like this whole process of trying to you know, find a balance between what
you're trying to say, and is it fun to read? And whatever.
The part that I like will always remember. So finally has got to be
the photos. And I really wish James Lydia could have been there for that,
you know, if they weren't a whole country away, uh, they
would have been. But you know, working on those directly with Caroline and
having her come to my house and help me style these photos and again me
having the input on that, like Caroline was like, no, you do
what you want and then if it doesn't work, you know, we'll we'll
we'll change this and change that. And she recently told me, she's like,
no, you have a real eye for styling photos like this, you
know obviously with your Instagram and all that, but I didn't expect you to
take such control in that regard. And it was you know, I was
really proud of how it turned out. So that was like getting that compliment
from not only a friend but a professional was really really nice. But just
the process of working on that with her is the part that I'm probably gonna
remember. The fun and obviously the zoom calls with James O Lydia. We
had a great time making the book, but that's you know, you're sitting
at a desk, Yeah, getting to pull everything out of out of the
room and and sort of plan this, you know, this visual thing with
these photos. It's something I remember for a long time. It's something I
hope I do again, because I do. I did really have fun with
that. I do think the book in a lot of ways is what it
is because the photos are so striking, and the writing was definitely such like
a fun process of it. I think it's because we wrote it for such
a long time. And I don't know about Waurreen, but I just kept
over analyzing the way I was writing things, thinking is that enough research?
So I think the writing was a double edged sword because it was so fun
to do and research. But at the same time, it was probably the
bit that we screwed nice the most over. But I'm glad we said the
time to look at the visuals and the writing because oh yeah, because I
mean we you know, we would write this thing and then you know,
send it to each other and make notes for each other. So like,
while we each took the reins on particular chapters, we all had heavy input,
you know, James and Lydia had heavy input on all my chapters and
vice versa, because we you know, we wanted this thing to all feel
cohesive, and you know, I think like anything, like Lydia said,
when you when you write something and you're constantly coming back to it and taking
away or adding to it's uh and I mean you understand this. To Brendan,
it's exhausting and you start to be like, wow, like I suck
at this, Like you start to like really just be like, you know,
why did I make this dumb? Why did I make this dumb little
joke? You know? And and going all the way back to the beginning
of this episode where we talked about, you know, over editing the podcast,
that was sort of my brain is like up up to the finish line,
there were things that I was like, hey, can we take out
and change this, like down to the wire because I was really trying to,
like, you know, get get to this final place with the book.
So I have so many fond memories of it they far out weigh any
negative. But I am glad that it's done. With The photos that were
done on your dining table, was that right? A lot of them were
done in my in my actual like dining room, Like we sort of Caroline
brought her equipment down to Florida. Caroline lives in Seattle, by the way,
so she traveled across the country, uh, to come take these photos.
Like that's probably the longest flight you can make in America. In fact,
I'm closer to Lydia than Carolina is to me. Like that, that's
insane to think about. I could fly to London right now in less time
than I could fly to Seattle six hours or something to England from where you
are. From here to London it's about seven seven y yeah, and to
Seattle it's like almost nine is it really? Which is? Which is?
Yeah? It's far man America. It's a big ass country man. Like
people wonder why people in America can't get on the same pages because there's a
lot of people here. It's huge. So, you know, Caroline travel
across the country literally to help me with these photos. She stawed me for
a week, and we like, she brought her stuff. We like turned
my dining room into this like makeshift studio, which again is why I think
the photos are so impressive, because she can work with that sort of like
all she needs is her lights, her camera, the ability to like you
know, get rid of reflections and stuff, which was the coolest thing.
And something I do want to highlight is that when you work with a real
photographer and Caroline is like unbelievable at what she does, she just immediately knows
how to problem solve. If we took a photo and I'm like, oh,
wow, that looks great, Caroline would go, yeah, but there's
this weird glare here. She would hand me like an umbrella and say,
can you stand right here and hold this up towards the light. The glare's
gone. Like watching someone in this space know how to fix these problems was
honestly like amazing for me to see. And I think that that's why that'll
be the part that I look back on and smile about for years, because
it was like a masterclass for me, Like I learned a lot as someone
who just takes photos with his phone for an Instagram. I feel like it
made me a better photographer. It made me like think about a little bit
more about certain things that I do. So that experience of working with someone
like Caroline who is not only so talented but so humble about it was like
really really special. And I think the book, even if the book were
just photos. I think people would want it because they are that beautiful.
So you get these beautiful photos and you get you know, me Lydia and
James like digging in as much as possible about this stuff. Yeah, fine,
a combo. I'm glad to know that you've done the history because I
didn't realize that. I just thought this was going to be and you can
get this figure and this figure and this game came out. I didn't realize
it was going to be an actual history on h category as well. So
that's actually really exciting. Yeah, because I think I was prepping for this
podcast and I was literally trying to think of how to sum up this book,
and I literally wrote about three paragraphs about how to describe it because it's
literally it's like when we pushed it to the publishers, they were like,
okay, so it's going to be like the antique and collectible section, and
we're like, yeah, but also talks about video games, and it talks
about TV and I don't know history in general, So yeah, it was
a difficult one to kind of like pitch to the publishers. But yeah,
like I think we did cover a lot of basis in it, Yeah,
and you do. You know, there are chapters that are like, you
know, and then there, and then there was this, and then there
was that. Like there is some of that, but I think along the
way we try to like give you like a glimpse into like where the show
was at that time or like you know, in this time. You know,
like I said earlier, there's like it's like, oh, in the
mid nineties, there was less stuff being made and more like calendars and like
you know, different types of merchandise. But then shortly after that there came
this and companies like this, So we try to like sort of explain how
this stuff was coming out in the era of it. Do you cover the
Simpsons House the contest? Oh? Yeah, yes, that's a whole chat.
Lelia did a whole fantastic chapter about that. Yeah. Yeah, because
we thought to include that one because at first I was thinking, is this
going to be a bit random to having the book because it's not actually like
something you can keep, but it kind of encapsulated how the Simpsons merchandise was
dipping, and then they brought out the House as this big promotional vehicle in
order to boost not only merchandise sales, but also viewership in the show again,
so yeah, like I'd love to have owned that house. But talking
about the story of it and how to build it, it's a fascinating story
in itself, and we've done a whole video about it, but I thought
it's worth its own chapter to really get into the nitty and gritty about how
it relates to the actual merchandise, for sure, because and that's another reason
we called the book, you know, Collecting the Simpsons the Merchandise and Legacy,
because you know, there's the house is significant in a lot of ways,
in the same way Universal Studios is. And while you know that's not
something you can physically collect, I do think it ties into that world.
All these little things kept the show relevant in a way that directly led to,
you know, merchandise. So I think that all of that is important.
I think it all comes I think it all makes sense being in a
book about collecting, and that's why we really felt the need to include that.
Have you eithered you ever visited the house? I have? I mean
I didn't go in. I didn't go in because people live there, but
I took some photos. I definitely I'm not encouraging anyone to do this.
I've joked with Lydia about this, and I think I even said it in
a video on their channel. I don't encourage this, but I did go
into their yard to take a photo because one of the only things that exists
from that original construction is the square that Matt Groening drew Homer in. Yeah,
so he drew Homer, he signed it and he wrote the year,
and that's one of the only things that still exists from like the original thing.
Well, if you go there and there's no cars in the driveway,
maybe you run up in there and take a quick photo, but like leave
the people alone. But I saw the house in person, and I did
get a photo of that and then ran back to my car. Did you
say they bought it in because of the Simpsons were dipping and it was like
A yeah, I think so Calvin and broad which was the they built like
this big housing estate in Levaga, and they a wants to promote it,
but they need be needed like a brand to associate with it in order to
promote it. And I think the reason why the Simpsons kind of accepted it
as I researched anyway, it's they wanted something which was going to be that
promotional vehicle to put them on TV screens, Like they had adverts on primetime
television advertising this competition, and then they had like the work of Pepsi,
So it was a big collaborative thing. But yeah, I think as shows
like South Park, there was like shows that were coming up around that time
which were competing for viewership around then. So I think for this house,
it's kind of acted as their vehicle to promote it. And yeah, it
also makes sense because you know, that was around the time that like there
was a bit of a lull in the merchandise in America anyway, And it
does seem you know, I'm not saying it's directly related, but it does
tick up big time after that. You get Playmates, you get all this
stuff after that. So who can say what impact that had, but it
does seem to have had a pretty big impact. And it's just crazy to
think that the person that one went nah, thanks, and it's like,
I know, you can build it. They said, you can either move
it to my house all the way in like rural yeah, or you can
build the exact replica on my farm and I'll charge people to look at it,
But I think she had a good reason because I think her brother.
I think it was for cancers, for like charity, so at least I
had a good sentiment behind it. But yeah, I know, you know
what's crazy in this looking back, not again, not to Monday Morning Quarterback,
this whole thing. But wouldn't it have made more sense to just the
for the promotion to be if you win, we will build you the house
because it would cost the same amount of money and it wouldn't be they wouldn't
have to move to Nevada. Yeah, it's like you have to move here.
It's about that one too. Like looking back, it's like, just
make a model, Like think of what a crazy promotion that would be to
be like, hey, we're doing this promotion. If you win, we
will literally build you the fucking Simpson's House, like wherever you want, like
we will build it for you. Like it would have been crazy, now,
I get it. The photos and the videos made the promotion even cooler.
But make a model, like I think if they would have offered to
build it anywhere, someone would still have that house and it would be a
museum and it would be so cool. I'm telling you, for twenty fifth
anniversary. If they did that again, everyone would be like, fuck,
yes, sign me up, I want this right now. Yes, I
would move to Nevada for every because every fucking kid who was like a kid
at that point is not old enough to have their own house. So we'll
all fucking we'll all want to be in this competition. I know they should,
they should do it again, Matt. I mean, I'm not imagine
living and I will say living in that house. After a couple of years,
the novelty would probably wear off. You'd be like, yeah, I
kind of just living in this constant like dream state of a cartoon, which
would after a while, you would probably But I think ultimately the smartest thing
on earth would have been for someone to just take it, but not live
there, and just make it a museum. That's the hire team. It's
hot friends that just hang out there, look after the place, and just
charge people to come and have look at it. Yeah, I know,
what a missed opportunity. They They also though, you got to say,
like you got to assume that, just like a lot of shows, then
they'd probably be like, well, you know, this thing will probably be
off the air in a couple of years anyway, like there's no chance we
make it to season ten. Yeah, you know, it's probably one of
those things where it just didn't seem like something that would matter in twenty years
maybe. Yeah, but you know how wrong they were. And Bill always
says that, you know, he's like the mentality when now his show run
is and was it seven and eight? They were like, we'll just do
whatever we want because we're not gonna be on the air anymore anyway, So
he cares, let's just go out full swing, you know, on its
way out anyway. Yeah, that's what they thought. Thirty years later,
still going around. But I mentioned Matt before, So how many of the
actual Simpsons cast crew or whoever did you get involved with this book. We've
got Bill Morrison, who basically designed a lot of the Simpsons merchandise as well
as being the co founder of Bongo Comics and Simpsons Comics. Yeah, a
name who many people may not know, but a pivotal part to this story.
Pivotal pivotal. I mean Bill is like, in my mind, he's
like one of the most I think he started to get his flowers a little
more now, but there was a time where I feel like he was like
one of the most unsung heroes of the show because not only was he like
so important to the comics, but so much of the merchandise that we all
collect and love was design by Bill, Like you know, like the matel
packaging, the video game arn't work like that was all Bill. Yeah,
So like he you know, part of the reason we remember the show visually
the way we do is because of things Bill drew. So I think Bill
is in such a huge part. So him doing the forward for me was
like huge because I've always admired Bill so much and having him be involved at
all or you know, endorse it in any way, especially right the forward
is like such a big deal. But yeah, but in addition to that,
I mean a lot of people endorsed it, you know, y Hardly
Smith endorsed the book. She wrote a blurb, Matt Selman wrote a blurb.
Wes Archer wrote a blurb. You know, these are people that we
sent some chapters and we're like, hey, you know, if you enjoy
the book, we'd love to get you know, like something from you.
And they all supported the book. So that's like a huge deal to me.
Yeah, and I really liked Bill Morrison's forward because it kind of told
the story about how we got involved in the Simpsons from the beginning. I
think he was working, oh yes at the time, and his mum actually
told him, do not work with this new TV show. It's not gonna
have the longevity as Disney. And then the Simptons is literally owned by Disney
now. But it just it was a really human forward to give, like
a really nice introduction into the kind of heart where this merchandise came from.
And he set the standard for what's to come. So it felt right that
he was the one who started the book. Yeah, very cool. Did
any of these people have any collectibles of their own? And they told you
about does does Matt collect things? I mean, he clicks comic books,
but does there any Simpsons shit, like cool Simpson stuff? I honestly,
I honestly don't think. I mean, I think he probably has some.
I feel like he keeps most of it at the office. I think I
asked him that when I interviewed him, Like I know that, like Bill
Morrison probably has an insane collection, and he also collects like Batman. He
has he has one of the biggest Batman collections in the in the world probably,
which is really cool. Bill Bill like he gets it. He's one
of He's one of us, you know. So I know Bill has a
ton of stuff. He also kept a lot of things from and he worked
in the merchandising department, like I know, some of the prototypes that we
know about, like or knew about years ago we were Bills like he you
know, he kept like the Dan Diatto or the you know, the Grandpa
Dandy and some of these things. As far as like a lot of Simpsons
people like I remember once I asked Jake Cogan that and his response was like,
no, I didn't keep the merchandise. That'd be like, you know,
working at McDonald's and eating hamburgers every night for dinner. I just can't,
you know, I can't. I never really cared about it. So
I'm sure it varies between people. I know Wes kept a lot of things.
I know Yardley kept some things. But yeah, it does seem like
when you're surrounded by it all the time, maybe you don't want to bring
it home. Seems like Matt Graining himself is like not only a fan of
the merchandise, but a fan of the bootleg merchandise as well. He's apparently
he's a giant collection of Yeah. Bill Morrison claims again to mention Bill that
Matt has the biggest collection in the world because he kept one of everything.
He claims that Matt kept one of everything that's ever been made. Now,
who now or not that that's true? Yo, one day we will know.
And Matt if you're if you're listening, and you know, I know
that that account. Actually he regularly emails me. He regularly writes into the
show. Really Matt, Matt Graining or Mass I'm joking. Well, excuse
me, excuse me. There is a Matt Groening, a Mat Graining sort
of like burner account that let's just say I've confirmed is him. I've confirmed
through official channels is really him, and he does. He does follow me.
So maybe one day, uh, he will reach out and be like,
hey, I've got all this stuff. I don't want to give it
to you. That's my that's my let's sell it give He doesn't need my
money. He doesn't need my money. Come on, it's funny you write
that about the bootlegs, because when Matt was here and Melbourn, we're going
out for dinner, We're walking around Melbourne trying to find all this various places
selling bootleg Simpsons ship that's like Simpson's artwork on the walls, but there's like
places that is blatantly called just like you know, Simpsons pizza, and it's
just like home painted on the wall eating a pizza. And it's like Matt
doesn't give a shit. He loves He takes photos of everything. He's got
a whole collection on his phone of all these bootlegg Simpsons places. Yeah,
because I think when I'm striking, he was wearing bootleg merchandise on his Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I'm sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, because
in ther I was gonna say. In the book Matt Groening, We've got
a quote from him where he talks about a off model bar Simpson doll where
he's supposed to be sitting on two Easter eggs, but their flesh colored so
it looks like he's sitting on two giant balls. So and I've seen that
thing and it does look very very weird. Yeah, I mean, I
you know, I understand that, like a lot of the people that work
for the show, like Matt Groaning, even Matt Selman, like Brennan saying
they they love that stuff. It's only Disney or Fox that would ever care,
Like they think it's cool, Like they love the fans, you know,
they want this like cool and interesting stuff to be made. So I
you know, I think that's like another reason to love the show. They
have no reason to dislike, you know, fans making stuff like that.
Well. I think for a long time too, it felt like the merchant
was being made. You touched on an earlier lily. With the the shirts
and stuff, it felt very generic, just like Google images wapped onto shirts.
I think in maybe the last I want to say, five years or
so, there's more sort of just hardcore fan targeted merch coming out, like,
for example, was a kid robot did the stupid sexy Flanders statue,
like figuring just things like that right where. It seems since Disney took over,
it's like their marketing department went, Fox, what are you doing?
You know, yeah, let them do target shit because I worked for also
worked for a place that sold pop culture things, and they bought a license
because of me. I was like, look, I've got three hundred thousand
people on my Facebook page. I can market the shit of this stuff.
Let's buy a license. So they bought the license, and then Fox were
just like, you can't do this, you can't do that, blah blah
blah. Eventually we got these I'm not sure whether you saw them, but
they're like replica Stonecutter steins. Yeah yeah, yeah they were because of me.
I had to push and scratch, like you can't do it, it's
gotta be this kind. I was like, but everyone's gonna want this,
it's like and made them, and boom, we saw like ten thousand of
them, like straight away. I believe it, you know what I mean.
But like Fox just had their heads so far up their own ass.
They just had no idea what they was sitting on, just didn't care.
DCNY took over and they're just like, h yeah, go for it.
Yeah yeah. I do believe there's been a huge uptick in good stuff since,
you know, and I know a lot of people want to find reasons
to complain about Disney owning the show, but one thing they cannot complain about,
or they can. I guess you can complain about anything, but it
makes no sense. The merchandise has only gotten better since they took over.
I do not like Funko pops. I've been very vocal about that. I
do. I cannot stand Funko pops. But even in Funko pop territory,
they make some really good ones. No offense to Brendan them. I get
them for nothing, So I don't care. There you go. I mean,
but but the things they're making are interesting at least like they're making.
They did at least a snail. I mean, that's great, you know.
And so you know, even kid Robot before they they actually retired their
license, they had it for a long time. I guess they probably just
felt like they had squeezed all they could out of it. They Oh,
is that what happened? Okay, well, there you go inside her info.
But Kid Robot, towards the end made what I consider, and I
say this in the book, two of the best things the show ever had,
which is super Sexy Flanders and Itchy and Scratch like from my bloddy Valentine.
Those are amazing. They come in a huge television Those are like next
level toys. I love those and all the stuff Super seven is doing.
Again, I'm not sponsored by them, but I should be as much as
I talk about them. Actually, now I do have an affiliate link.
So if you want to buy super seven stuff, go to my link and
use it because I make money. But that is true what I'm saying.
They are making incredible stuff that probably could not have been made ten years ago
because Fox would have had some sort of problem with it. Yeah, and
it's just like, I know it's pricey, but once you're holding it,
you're like, ah shit, I can kind of see why. But still
trying to convince your wife that, hey, can we spend one hundred dollars
on this little toy? She's like, Brendan, I love you, but
yeah, you just have to lie about what it costs. Maybe if you
get more patrons on your podcast, maybe that's a good subscribe to patroon anyway,
But so what else should we cover with the book before we go?
Because I just say, it's one thirty in the morning and I'm just like,
I feel like I'm delirious, but I want to get as much out
of this as possible. So let's let's talking about this book. But what
have we coverage yet, particularly category and discussed yet? I mean not,
you know, there's lots of things, so I mean the book, you
know, not only do we talk about the merchant, the toys, and
beyond that, like stuff for your house. But you know, we talk
about the books, we talk about the fast food toys, we talk about
the video games, we talk about toys that weren't made. There's a whole
chapter about like toys that don't exist. They're just they only exist in sample
or prototype form. So it's pretty broad, you know. I think anyone
that wants to learn more about that or already has a collection and just wants,
like, you know, a way to sit around on the couch and
enjoy that and look at cool photos of it, I think this book will
work for that. I mean, I you know, there's not much to
say other than if you like the Simpsons and you have any affection at all
for the toys, just buy it. Yeah, and also we like money.
Warren did have to open like a twenty year old Crostio's box to really
show the cereal in one of the photos, so that sacrificed a lot for
it, ye like we had or did you just invite your friends just opened
it up? Just like? So what I will say, Like, the
food chapter is awesome, and there's so many cool photos in there as well.
There's there's also a photo about like media, so like VHS, DVD,
all that stuff. But in the food chapter, when we open that
cereal for the photo, I was like, you know, if it doesn't
smell that bad, I might just try it. It smelled absolutely terrible.
Oh really, did you try it? I did not try it. It
expired in two thousand and seven, I believe. And it's just fruit loops.
Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but I think they had to deal with
fruit loops. It's literally just froot loops. But it let's just say,
fruit loops does not age well. And I cannot even describe the smell.
That's going to say, describe the smell? Yeah, what what would you
three k words? How would you like if you I think if you locked
away synthetic fruit in a time capsule, so like the smell of fruit in
a time capsule and then someone dug it up in twenty years, that smells
exactly like that. Like it just smells like stale fake fruit. There it
is. It just smells so weird. I've never smelled anything like it,
and I've smelled old food several times. You know, obviously collecting stuff,
you come across food I've sort of cashed out of collecting food anything sealed because
I've had chocolate that just got gross or just like all it's hard and there's
people that love that stuff. From a collector standpoint, it's hard for me
to do. So. I've smelled weird stuff. Old chocolate smells weird,
old chips smell weird. But those that those crustio's, Man, that's one
of the weirdest smells I've ever smelled. I do not I do not recommend
it. If you have a sealed box at home and you're curious, do
not open it. Just leave it alone, leave it sealed forever. See
I could have told you that because they had them here in Australia and I
just ate them, like I knew that were fruit libs. I was like,
this is just fruit lips with a different character in the bucks. What
I remember them coming out and I think I think I convinced myself that they
were different. I was like, oh, these are really good, Like
I didn't like, they didn't taste swee. You want it to be different,
so you just tell yourself that, Yeah, Well, is there any
stuff that came out in Australia that isn't available anywhere else mertions wise, lots
of stuff. Actually, I will say one of the things that I regret
about the book, and this is like, you know, it's just it
was too much. And maybe maybe I'll do another book, who knows.
But there's so much international stuff that I couldn't talk about because that would require
almost its own book, and you know, chapters. The book was getting
so big we knew we couldn't really add any more chapters. But I would
have loved to do a whole chapter or again even a whole book about international
merchandise because countries like Australia had so much stuff that was unique to Australia,
and the packaging was so different, Like a lot of times stuff from Australia
would have like them playing sports on the packaging, which was not common in
America at all. That Yeah, I mean, I have like you know,
I believe it's no, it's a glue stick. It's either lip balm
or a glue stick. I truly can't remember at this point. Those are
very different things. But they look alike, what are you doing with your
glu? Yeah, but it's something like that, and Bart is playing soccer
or football on it, and that was very common apparently for Australian merchandise in
the nineties to have like that sort of packaging, I guess because it showed
the kids being active. That's what we do, yeah, which whenever you're
marketing with a fast food it was always, yeah, showing kids being active.
Yeah yeah. And so it's like a totally different world, which is
like one of the most interesting things. And the same can be said for
Japan, France, you know, Italy, all these places. The packaging
is so different and a lot of times things were only made there. Like
it's you know, yeah, they would have playmates in you know, England,
but it's not the same as what we had in America, Like they
would sell the toys individually, whereas in America you could only get some of
them in a play set, et cetera, et cetera. But in places
like Japan and France and Italy and Australia and the list goes on and on,
it was like a completely different market of toys that only exist there.
And I think that that is like the most interesting thing about collecting anything,
but especially Simpsons, is that they had the fans to support that on such
a worldwide, world wide level. But Australia is actually like an area of
merchandise that doesn't get talked about enough because there is so much And I've bought
a lot of stuff from Australia that you just never see. So yeah,
I might have to do like a I might have to do like a Australian
eccentric series of posts soon because I do have a lot of stuff from Australia.
Do you have the ntall glasses? I have a ton of them.
I think I have them all now. I think I do, because it's
just one thing. I don't know whether you do it in the States or
in England, but it's like you know, once you finish your jam or
you spread, yeah, that is you get to keep the glass. Look
what a fucking clever concept that is, right, It's it's so cool And
I know that that was Like there was a time where those were like so
hard to find in America. And I think because every way he man everywhere,
I believe it, and they're probably so cheap. But for a long
time in America, the only way to really get those things where you had
to know someone there that would ship them to you, or you had to
buy them through like you know eBay with like a VPN or something. Yeah,
and they were just more expensive because you had to like you know,
ship them. They're super far and all this stuff. Now that more collectors
have existed for thirty years and people have had them in America for a long
time, you see more people in America selling them because they're like they need
to make space or so, they're not as uncommon as they once were.
It's the same with like stuff from Japan. It was really hard to find
for a long time. Now that collecting has been a thing long enough,
it's a little more common in America because enough people have had it over the
years. But then the teleglasses, there was a time where those were like
kind of expensive because everyone wanted them. So yeah, it took me a
while, but I think I have them all. I'm close at least.
They just they covered stuff is here. It's like every Australian keys. It's
got like six at the back of they covered. It's amazing and they're great.
There's like the short ones, the tall there's like a lot of different
and they really the unique designs on them too. It's not like you said,
like off Google it's just they were drawn for the glasses. Yeah,
no, they're so good. And like the drawings, the ones that are
just like the characters where it's just like a photo, like the Mister Burns
when I just showed the camera it's just a photo and then the name over
it. Uh. Those are so nice, Like they look way too nice
yep to have just been something that Natella came in. Yeah, like they
look like if you you you know, they're beautiful. Like I just think
they're great. They made like Natella like a household brand here. Lookun't tell.
It was just sort of starting everyone's like, yeah, I'm not too
sure. Put him in Simpsons glasses. Bring everyone one of the Simpsons glasses.
And as a result everyone started to eating na Tella. Yeah. And
I mean not only that, but the like I've noticed that like stickers and
like notebooks and that sort of thing were really big in Australia. There's like
a lot of that, tons of stickers, tons of like glowing the dark
stuff was really big there. Like that market is very very interesting. It's
like such a cool space because it's really unlike anywhere whereas like France and you
know, places like that were really big into ceramics, but in in Australia
it's like the opposite. It's like no, it's like practical shit tack at
school and stuff. Yeah, yeah, And I think that's really cool.
I think that's like a it's like what separates all these different markets in a
way that makes it fun to collect? What about you, Lydia, did
you have any Simpsons collectibles when you were a kid. My mum was very
against the Simpsons, Like she would just walk into the living room, see
it with the Simpsons and then swear and then she should walk out again.
So I like, for some reason, I was banned from getting a lot
of things, like there were these weird like alien jelly things and eggs that
you could buy and I was never allowed any of those. I was never
out of particular sweets, So no, I didn't have. And then when
it came to like writing the book, I was like, wouldn't it be
so nice if we could each have a photo ourselves as kids wearing Simpsons merchandise?
And I was like, I don't have anything. So no, I'm
reliving. I'm having like a midlife crisis where I'm starting it now. No,
it looks fantastic. It looks great, thank you. My wife walks
in here and she just goes it. You can't see it here, but
I've just I've just got I'm sorry, that's all some Simpson stuff up there.
And yeah, i've got the goo we those Simpsons on the fun cover
of your book. You've got like the toppers for the for the cups.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So I'm not sure whether they were
available in the States, but they were part of a KFC promotion here.
Were they available in the States as well? Were the KFC in the States
as well? You know, It's so interesting because I in my memory,
I like, I I swear I remember those commercials in America, and I
think that they were sold in America. But you honestly could be right.
Those could have most those could have only been in Australia. I don't think
so, but it's possible. I know that ninety eight. I still remember
that you say that. I now that you say that. I do believe
I might have bought them from someone in Australia, but I remember. Maybe
I've just seen it so many times that it's like a false memory. But
I swear I remember those commercials in America. I know they did do some
stuff in America, so did Subway, but other than that, it was
like mostly burging. So yeah, maybe that is a maybe that is a
false memory, but they it's cool that they had them there. Also,
this is how much of a loser I was, right and how awesome my
parents were because I still remember those because there's four cups in that collection,
as you be well aware. Yeah, and there's one. It's the purple
one where has like the whole cast on it, you know, the one
I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and the kfs that we
always would go to your house. They didn't have that one. So mom
and dad drove little Brendon around to like four or five different kfss, which
cups if you got, and they're like, I don't know. I'm like,
can you please look, I need the purple one. They're like,
fine, whatever, this one, and I'm like, yes, it's the
one, Mom, I need that one. My god, I love that.
I gotta be honest too, this is like so funny, Like we
talk about like, you know, things that things about the book that like
you are along the way you just like, can't I honestly think that here
on this podcast, a four figure discount exclusive. I think I think Brennan
just caught something that I had missed, and I think possibly those are not
from America anyway. They're from Australia, and I forgot that when I was
making the book maybe in America. Maybe maybe I'm wrong, Maybe maybe that
false memory is a true memory. But like now that you say that,
I'm like, you know what, I think he's right. Second edition.
I mean, it's fine, you know, it's it's gonna happen. Oh
yeah, yeah, I love those. And either way, I mean,
at least I didn't say they were from like, you know, jolly By
or something. At least I said they were from their correct place. And
I did forget that those were in Australia and they might not have been in
America. Did you have amazing tasos in the UK? We called I think
you call them pugs. We call them tasos. Mmm, oh no,
little magic motion like discs like pugs. We call them pugs and stones.
Don't they also have like a clip on them? Sometimes not the one,
not the ones we had that So basically we had said, do you not
have them in your set? New collection? I do. I do have
some, but I also thought there were some that had a clip, but
those might not be taso, those might be a different Are all just the
motion ones? Yeah that's yeah, Yeah, I do have some of those.
Yeh. They look like POGs lydia, but they're not always circles,
right are Some of them like have a different shape, So all the all
the tass a circle. So there was a reason I thought there was some
that had like they were almost like not a star, but like they almost
were like a sun. Again, I think dragon ball z ones that did
that. And there's also ones that I'm know the ones you're talking about,
they were they were lonitunes. But yeah, there was ones that you can
connect connect to each other, had little like holes on the edges of the
can sort of slop them into each other. But they were a huge thing
in the nineties, like everyone loved getting their ta You get them in packets
of what you call crisps. We call them chips. Don't ask me why
we call them chips. We called them. We call them chips. Also,
okay, yes, so I live with my wife's English, so I
noticed that crisps, But yeah, that would be in there, and then
of course all the do goods. We're like, you're promoting best food and
junk food to kids. This is not right. And they took it away
and I was like, but the whole fun was collecting the tasos. No
one went there for the food. They went there for the toys. I
bought the chips. I didn't eat the chips. I just wanted the taso
that was in the packet. My mom was like, those because I've got
them stuck to my wall, got a whole wall of tasos, Like that's
my wallpaper in this part of the room over here. And my Mom's like,
every time I walk in your room and I see those tasas, I
think of all the money you made me waste on chips. You'd open up
the packet and go, I've already got this one. Another packet, please,
And I'm like, what I mean, that's the thing that's so special,
and I want to know, like what weird thing Lydia remembers. But
what I remember is that it wasn't just that, but they would do promotions
with like tombstone pizza. They would do like, which is a big thing
in America, is like a frozen pizza. They still exist. But one
of my earliest memories of Simpson's merchandise period, and I had this on my
wall when I was like little kid was a thing you had to mail in
to Tombstone to get a poster. And and years ago I found that poster
again and I had it framed in my room for a long time. Sadly,
I ran out of room. I needed the wall space, and the
poster's huge. It's like, you know, thirty six by twenty four or
something. It's a huge poster. But I do still have it, and
that's like one of my earliest memories. So that's what I that's what I
mean, Like Taso's Tombstone burger King, these things are like some people's first
memory of the merch Yeah, I had nothing, I think. I think
for me it's just skip past because I think I loved the show and I
watched the show, but I never actually had that thing of walking down toyas
and like looking at the Simpsons merchandise. I think for me it was very
much like you know, I like my barbies, I like my like sure
baby burns. I think like I appreciated it as a show, but I
baby, I've not thought about dice for a long time. You fed them
and then they pood. Yeah, like for me, I think like the
toy. I think. I don't know. Maybe I have to talk to
my mum. But I can't actually remember any of us having any Simpsons merchandise.
I have to ask James. But yeah, one of my favorite things
that I own Simpsons merch wise. And I know this is only avaiable in
Australia because it was an Australian thing. So when we first got pay TV
in Australia, it was called Galaxy, and then it became Foxtail, and
when they rebranded as Foxtowel, Bart Simpson was the mascot of Foxtail and he
had the cash phrase, I want my foxtail, right, Lauren's looking around.
He must have something. I got my fact, it's the magnet.
Yes, I love my foxtail. Yes, so I've got that on the
fridge still here that I got. When we first got Foxtail, it was
like you didn't you weren't cool unless you had the Bart Simpson magnet. And
yeah, so how much do you have to pay for that? Bad boy?
I don't remember. I think I got this Fox Tale is only in
Australia, right, Well Foxtel is what England court Sky? Okay, yeah,
I don't remember where I got this, to be honest, it's so
weird too, because like I don't think that owned by the same person,
but when you go to England, the remotes are exactly the same except one
says Foxtown the other says Sky. But they're two completely different companies. It's
so bizarre, so weird. Yeah, I this is like so such a
funny thing about collecting is like eventually you just forget where stuff came from.
Like for the longest time, I could tell you exactly when and where I
bought everything that I have, And now I'm to the point where it's like
turning into a vague memory of some of the origins. But there you go.
Yeah, And the other thing we have is I've got him in the
fridge in my garage. Is that it's Homer and Bart and you can dress
them. They're magnets. Have you seen these ones, Warren't, Yes,
yes, I have some. Yeah, so I those are those are also
Australian correct, Well, this is the thing, so I originally maybe they
are also in the Uk. I think so I originally had some. They
made some like cheaper ones in America, I remember for sure, But they
might have also originally had like some of the nicer ones in America, because
the ones that I recall seeing when I was younger were like much smaller and
like all they were they were. They might have even just been stickers,
not magnets. But I know exactly the ones you're talking about, ye,
because there would be a different set, like sometimes it would just be Barton
Homer, and then there would be one with Marge and Lisa. I think,
yeah, so like you had to get like a few sets to have
the whole family, and they came with hilarious outfits like that they would just
be like them in their underwear and you could put them in all kinds of
weird stuff. I do, I do have them somewhere in here, That's
what I so. I thought you could never get margin, Lisa, because
they wouldn't want to show you those guys and all those girls in their underwear.
I'm I am like fairly positive. Again, this could be a false
memory, but I'm pretty sure there's a margin Lisa. One also, and
I think I have Okay, Yeah, okay maybe yeah. But what happened
was I went on eBay UK and obviously my family within the UK, so
I found someone in the UK with them and go to ship to their house.
I said, hey, let's go for a let's get visit you fan.
That'd be fun. Really, I've just got to get my Simsters magnets.
But yes, had in the UK too. Anyway, that's so cool.
It has been fun. This has been amazing. Yeah, it's been
super fun. Very excited to finally read this book. So I try to
go online and pre order. I was just like, I'm just going to
pre order one. I can't find anywhere to pre order in Australia. Everywhere
says unavailable. Ship, do you have Booktopia in austriat Utopia says not available?
Amazon not available. That is a question for our publishers. Next week,
Yeah, we will find out. We will find out what's up with
that and well, and I'm sure we can get one on its way to
you. Because I only go on Boo Topia or Amazon and both of them
say not currently not available. I was like, oh, this was available
for so long and then they announced it now it's not available. What's going
on here? I thought maybe you sold your original orders or something. I
truly don't know. We will find out. But either way, Brennan,
I'll make sure you get one. I've got Dund's address. I've sent it
to the publishers. You should very soon. Great. Great. I will
buy one anyway because I like to support my friends. That's very that's very
kind of you. Yeah. I mean, I hope everyone loves this book.
I mean, it is truly, truly a labor of love. You
know, we worked, we worked our asses off on it. I'm proud
of it, and I just hope that you know, it's something that people
look at more than once if they actually read it, take it all in.
You know. Well, really this could be available for Christmas just the
States, unfortunately, yes, I think for the UK and probably Australia.
I think it's January fifteenth, but yeah, yeah, I think so,
which is annoying. But we had to push it back because we wanted a
few final edits on it just to make it perfect, and unfortunately it meant
that the release date was pushed back. Yeah. But I will say to
anyone that like has already ordered it in America or anywhere, really, some
people are getting them early. I've gotten several messages even in the last couple
of days of people that are like, oh my god, I ordered it
from you know, X, Y or Z and it's already here. So
there's a chance that even you know, who knows, maybe even the UK
would get a little sooner if if they've already ordered it, so you know,
go go get it and maybe you'll have it even before. You might
get it two weeks early. Definitely. Yeah. I've pre ordered mine for
the UK just to see what it's like getting it as a customer, so
hopefully it might get mine early too, because I need to give it to
my mom. He should do so, you know what you should. It
is just the marketing, it's just the marketing brain coming out of me.
But you guys should make like a custom I owe you note that people can
print off and give to their friends for Christmas. That's good. I'll do
that. Yeah, I'll do that. That's what happened for the for the
Star Wars presence. When they first came out, they didn't have they didn't
realise it's going to be a huge hit. So they're like, all these
kids want Star Wars toys for Christmas, but they weren't gonna be ready.
So all these kids under the Christmas tree that you got, and I owe
you one Star Wars toy you're going to be getting this next year. So
that's what they got, and they were happy with that because I knew they're
going to be geting their Star Wars toys. So maybe you should be doing
the same. Now, that's that's a great idea. I'm gonna. I'm
not going to give you any credit, Brinnan, but I'm gonna I'm gonna
do that. It's such a good idea. Alright, guys, it's been
a blast. Thank you once again for joining me on the go. Get
some sleep, my friend. I will talk to you soon. Lydia.
Always a pleasure. I'll see you both very soon. See soon.