Insights into Entertainment

Insights Into Entertainment: Episode 53 "Shrinking kids, growing prices"

February 17, 2020 Joseph and Michelle Whalen Season 2 Episode 53
Insights into Entertainment
Insights Into Entertainment: Episode 53 "Shrinking kids, growing prices"
Show Notes Transcript

In Disney Detective Rick Moranis returns to an iconic role, Disney park prices are on the rise...again. Tinker Bell finds true love decades after first meeting each other. 

Our new segment Star Wars Insights takes a trip down memory lane to that fateful day when Mace Windu got his purple saber and a bomb shell revelation of a key character in the latest Darth Vader comic that could shake the Star Wars Universe to it's core.

We take a look at the new Stranger Things teaser and catch a glimpse of Robert Pattinson as Batman in Entertainment News. We'll finish up with a couple of unusual Insightful Picks of the Week, a recap and short video of Zolocon 2020 and review some of the upcoming conventions coming to our area.

Speaker 1:

Insightful pocket by informative insights, a podcast network

Speaker 2:

[inaudible]

Speaker 3:

to insights into entertainment, a podcast series, taking a deeper look into entertainment and media. Your hosts, Joseph and Michelle, Waylon, a husband and wife, team of pop culture, phonetics are exploring all things from music and movies to television and fandom.

Speaker 2:

[inaudible]

Speaker 4:

welcome to insights and entertainment. This is episode 53. Shrinking kids growing prices. I'm your host, Joseph Whalen and my versatile and creative cohost, Michelle.

Speaker 5:

It's always, it's always interesting to hear which adjectives you will be running out of magic. Can you tell we need to play Madlibs a little more. The green and happy or your purple, purple and ghostly purple. It goes, Lee. There you go.

Speaker 4:

Uh, so today on a Disney detective, we will be talking about some honey. I shrunk the kids reboot news, um, as T as suggested by the title Disney's raising ticket prices. Unjustifiably once again, which is a very Disney thing to do. Then we have some touching news of uh, uh, Tinkerbell nature that we'll talk about then in our newly Christian segment. Star Wars insights. Since we've had so much star Wars news, we call it something else until we come up with something better. Yeah. Um, we have some flashbacks for Samuel L. Jackson and a major Darth Vader bombshell to talk about. And then in our entertainment news we have some stranger things, news to talk about and we get our first look at Robert Pattinson as Batman. I have to say, you know, not the spoil the segment or anything, but he's not bad looking as is Batman, not at all. Then we will finish up with a couple of off the wall out in left field picks of the week. I think a kind of outside of our normal comfort zone. So should we get started? Sure. All right, go for Disney detective.

Speaker 5:

So this was a kind of heartwarming too to hear. Uh, Rick Maraniss

Speaker 6:

will be returning after a 24 year acting hiatus to star in a honey. I shrunk the kids reboot. Uh, Rick maranas obviously for those who are fans of the original start in the 19, um, 89 classic honey, I shrunk the kids. And then there was, and then in 92, there was the sequel honey. I blew up the kids and then there was actually a 1997 direct to video sequel honey, we shrunk ourselves. Um, so the reboot is going to take place decades after the first with, uh, Josh GAD starting starring, sorry. As Wayne's grown up, son, uh, GAD actually had tweeted the news expressing how happy was to see maranas back on screen and starring with him. Uh, to quote him, he said to say it as a dream come true to once again, see Rick Maraniss on the big screen is an understatement of the decade. But to say I get an up seat view of him returning to play one of the most iconic roles in the UN is the understatement of the century. Welcome back hero. Um, the first movie, obviously for those that might not have seen it follows Wayne Zelinsky, who's a scientist who accidentally strengths his kids and the neighbor's kids. And basically the kids are, you know, uh, going around their backyard really and trying to, you know, find their way,

Speaker 5:

cool area that they should really do a playground like that. So the moon, the new moon

Speaker 6:

V is set to recreate the premise where, uh, Josh GAD who is playing Nixle and ski accidentally shrinks his own kid setting up the new story, why they got Josh GAD to play because he does everything

Speaker 5:

because Wayne Johnson was already doing something. So it's either reign Johnson's everything or jazz trashcan. Yeah. That would have been interesting listening to him as well. He's already doing the jungle cruise movie. So you know, so

Speaker 6:

any, uh, too many, um, Disney movies. Um, so this is actually the first orange screen roll for maranas in 24 years after he decided to take a step back following his wife and his tragic death, uh, the actor lost his wife who was a costume designer back in February of 1991 to breast cancer. Um, and they had two children. So he kinda slowly left public life to focus on being a single father and just never, you know, he said he never really retired. It just kind of, you know, here's here and there, but for overall, you know, he said, I took a break, which, you know, turned into a much longer break, but I'm in anything that I, you know, would find interesting and I still get the occasional query about of film or TV role. As soon as one comes along that piques my interest. Um, obviously his return comes months before the new Ghostbusters movie after life hits theaters, which was obviously another film franchise that he was part of. Um, but he actually won't be part of that movie. Uh, to quote him from a 2015 interview. Uh, he said that I wish them all well. Um, I hope it's terrific, but it makes no sense to me why I would do one day of shooting for something I did 30 years ago. Um, while obviously he left to focus on being present for his children. He didn't express regret at his decision. He said, I was working with really interesting people, wonderful people. I went from that to being at home with a couple of little kids, which is a very different lifestyle, but it was very important to me. He headed, I absolutely have no regrets whatsoever. My life is wonderful. Um, so it'll be cool to, you know, to, to see him back, you know, on the screen and, and you know, I remember obviously watching, you know, watching it as a kid, you know, I don't think we've ever shown it to, to our daughter. So it'll be an interesting movie to, to bring back, you know, for her. So

Speaker 4:

a good family movie night thing to see the original before we go to see this.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. Yeah. So good for him. Glad he is

Speaker 4:

nice actor. You know, he's so gracious. Uh, and, and he's, he's a good actor. You know, when he plays characters, he, he immerses himself in the characters that he plays and he doesn't. So, which is why he was such a good fit for this role to play this, this dad, because it was a role he had recently taken on in real life and he really embraced it and, and you know, did a fantastic job with it. So it should be good to see him do it to me again. Uh, what else do we have? Oh look at that. Disney raising prices again. Let's talk about that cause we never talk about that.

Speaker 6:

No, this never happens. So it, Disney land, not Disney world. Disney land in California has increased its prices again with tickets now costing up to$209. So the Disneyland park in Anaheim has increased the prices of its day, passes annual passes and digital max passes a Disneyland had introduced a five tier pricing scheme that classifieds tickets, a ticket prices as being peak days and off days while the prices for tickets and low demand days such as midweek in March didn't increase and have remained at$104 per day. Now tickets for peak days such as the weekends increased by$5 from$149 to$154, where mid tier prices, one day tickets range from 114 to$139 just for one day. But the most expensive ticket is the one day hopper, which allows guests to visit both Disney land and Disney California adventure. Now the cost starts at 159 for low demand days, but those two 109 on high demand days and those tickets were actually previously 154 and 199 respectively. Um, so a spokesperson for a Disney, uh, in a statement said a visit to our parks is the best value in entertainment bar none. And we offer flexible choices to enable families to choose what's best for them.

Speaker 4:

Wow. That's, so that's, they're doing it all for us.

Speaker 6:

They're doing it all for us. And it's funny cause you know, we had talked about this and a friend of mine, a couple of friends of mine at work had talked about it because they're planning, they're both doing Disney world now. I haven't found anything about Disney world prices going up yet, but you know, it's going to because it always does because it's Disney in that and that's what they do. And you know, in talking about it, you know, we were saying, yeah, okay, you know, how much does, and, and we even brought it up to, um, cause I think you had mentioned that there was an article, um, that you read that kind of gave the comparison of, okay, well if you go to a sporting event, you know, how much do you pay for seats for a sporting event? That's only two or three hours.

Speaker 4:

They, they took the assumption that the parks were 15 hour, um, events and they said, okay, well if you're paying a certain amount of money for a concert or sporting event for three hours, we're going to take that price on a flight over 15 hours. It's like, well, no, because it doesn't work that way because it's a vacation.

Speaker 6:

Right, right. But I could kind of, you know, I could, I could kind of relate. And the other thing too is that with Disney land, Disney land isn't as much of a vacation destination as a Disney world is.

Speaker 4:

If I go to Disney land and a third of the park is shut down for construction, I go hang on and I go to a sporting event and I go watch, you know, we're in the Philadelphia, I go and watch the Eagles game. Half the Eagles games not going to be shutdown for, for construction. I can guarantee you that. Right? So I get a full dedicated three hours of them putting on a show for me, whether it's a sporting event, a musical concert, whatever it is, I get their full, undivided attention. And I can't say I get that from Disney because Disney is constantly got services offered.

Speaker 6:

Right. I definitely, I definitely agree

Speaker 5:

with the, if you have so many things shut down because of construction, there should be some sort of, uh, you know, discounted ticket to that. Now on the day to day basis, things happen, stuff shuts down. That's right. Because you know, I, you know, back in the day, worked in an amusement park, you know, in the amusement park industry, you know, growing up and constantly we'd get that complaint, you know, I guess relations well such and such was shut down. And I'm like, yeah, well we had no control over that. And you know, the ride was working first thing in the morning and it shut down. You're new, you're comparing apples to oranges here. The absolutely hammer is that. Okay, so let's say that that magic kingdoms of 15 hour destination, how many of those hours am I standing in line? Well, and that was the thing that we were talking that we brought up at work was that, okay, so for, I'm there at the park for 15 hours, but how many hours am I waiting on on a line? Let's get on Peter pan because it's always a 90 minute wait, right? So I'm waiting an hour and a half to get on one ride. Right? And then you're going to try to compare this to a sporting event or a concert where I get to my seat and I get to see the whole thing in one sitting. Right? It's you're, you're, you're way off base number one with that comparison. And number two, they come up with this, this excuse of, well we charge more during peak hours so that we can regulate the people in the park when they don't regulate the people in the park. Right. And that was, and that was the other thing is, okay, so you're raising your price. Okay. So some people might decide not to go because you raised your price, but the other people are still going to go. Like when we were down in, you know, in, in Disney world for Christmas, that was their peak season. Tickets were$149 for one day. We knew we were only doing one day. And at first I didn't want to do the park because I didn't want to spend$149 for the day. And then you were like, how could we be down in Disney? And it's Galaxy's edge and it's Christmas and ho ho, ho we, you know, and what did we do? We spent that much river. I'd see. The thing is, if you're going to use that as the logic, then park capacity can't be the same as any other time, right? Because charging twice the amount of money to get into the park, then you need to let half the number of people in the park, right. And right. What they do is they charge twice the amount, but they allow the same number of people to come into the park and it ruins the entire experience for everybody who's in the park. Right. And that's where, and we had that same kind of issue with New York comic con. They

Speaker 6:

obviously oversold by so many. Hey, thanks. They obviously oversold, you know, the amount of tickets and they didn't have to, they could have said, we sell so many thousands of tickets per, you know, per day. And that's it. Now the the thing with with Disney in their park tickets is a lot of times you don't know unless you like when we bought our ticket because we were just going for the one day, we had to specify what day we were buying our ticket for. But if you have an annual pass, if you don't have a block, you know a blackout date, you can go whatever day you want. If you buy a multi-day ticket, you know? Yeah, Disney's going to know over a certain amount of time how many people are going to go. But they're not going to know the exact, you know, number. Now granted, you could not sell day passes, you know, for that day, but you know for them to say, Oh, we can only let so many people in for per day, but if you already bought your ticket and you already, you know, have an annual pass, then how do you, you know, I can wash that off. So

Speaker 4:

I can understand that logic to a certain extent for safety reasons. But when you're going to say, and you're going to claim that you're charging more money to deter people from coming, and you let still let the same number of people in the park, then you're not deterring your, it's a money grab. That's all it is.

Speaker 6:

Because no other day throughout the year does Disney close for capacity except for new year's Eve.

Speaker 4:

And I can almost guarantee you those, that those capacity numbers are fire hazard numbers that they have in there. Oh, I'm sure. And if Disney could cram more bodies in there and take more money for it, they would. Yeah. So anyway, prices going up in Disney's cause you know, they need it. Right. Uh, so what's our next, uh, our next field? Good story up 10 years ago.

Speaker 6:

No, here. Here is a really good feel good story. And you know, with, with Valentine's day that just passed and love in the air. Um, so Margaret Kerry, who was the model for Tinkerbell, um, and is a Disney fan favorite, um, got married on Fallon tines day to a long lost love. Um, so she actually was the reference model for Tinkerbell in 1950 threes, Peter pan. Um, and she recently reunited with a lost love and they actually, um, at the time when this article, um, came out, they were actually planning on getting married in the spring, but they actually got married on Friday on Valentine's day. Uh, so for Peter pan, uh, Carrie was filmed, uh, by special effects crews performing different scenes with oversized profs to kind of get an idea of how to draw a Tinkerbell and, and everything. So she actually, you know, she didn't just sit there and, and you know, look pretty, she actually did a lot of physical work to, you know, to bring Tinkerbell, you know, to life. Um, she ended up, you know, working, uh, doing some films later on with Mickey Rooney and, uh, Eddie Cantor, um, she had roles in the little Rascals and the Andy Griffin show, well, back in the 1940s, she and Robert had met, um, Hey. Yeah, you cheers. Um, had met, um, when he was a student in Southern California at the university of Southern California. Uh, so they dated, but unfortunately he ended up accepting a job in Northern California and she stayed behind in Southern California to work on an ABC sit-com. Um, so they kind of lost touch. She ended up marrying, um, a television director in 1951 and they were together for 37 years. Um, then after her first husband passed away, she remarried again and they were together for 12 years. And you know, she's been single since then. While last year Robert was in Amsterdam with friends and notice a store that was called Tinkerbells toys. And he commented to his friends that he had been in love with Tinkerbell all his life and he said, I'd never forgotten her. Well, mutual friends kind of, you know, looked her up online and found her website and you know, basically, you know, tried to get the two of them together and um, it seems she still had a piece of jewelry that he had given her 70 years ago when they were dating. And she said, you know, that, you know, she never forgot him and they made several phone calls and finally they got their schedules together and they met and she said as soon as we looked at each other, it's like, you know, love at second sight. It's like the Disney store, a Disney story or a hallmark movie. Um, he is 94. She is 90. They got married on Valentine's day and she's been living out in California all these years, but traveling to different conventions and different Disney things. Well he lives in Sarasota, Florida and he just bought a brand new house for the two of them and she's making her way, uh, out to Sarasota to, to live with her new husband. So, Oh, that's, that's a cute story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was all over Facebook, you know, this weekend. Various people, cause they had some sort of a Disney

Speaker 5:

legend event and that's when she got married, you know, then, and they throw a little party and you know, it's never too late to find true love, so very happy for them. Oh, nice. All right. That's all for our Disney news, for Disney news. So let's come back with star Wars ins. I need to come up with a transition. All right, there we go. Okay. It's about Samuel L. Jackson.

Speaker 6:

So obviously he's very, you know, he's keeping busy. Uh, he's in a upcoming movie with Chris rock. Um, but fans actually, uh, found some video on Reddit that captured the moment when the Jedi master asked George Lucas for a purple lightsaber. And people are absolutely like going Gaga over this because it's just like so cute and so simple, but yet, you know it. Let's take a look at it. All right. Take a look at it.

Speaker 2:

Trying to figure out who we had to talk to about your light color to lightsaber color. Well, good guys or good guys or green and blue. Bad guys are red. That's just the way it works. Let's go purple. You might get purple.

Speaker 6:

Um, so if you, you know, if you couldn't hear it, he said, you know, send you all Jackson saying, you know, who do we gotta talk to you about lightsaber and you know, and George says, my own the good guys get green and blue and the bad guys are red. That's just the way it works. And he kind of was like, Oh no, purple.

Speaker 7:

Yes,

Speaker 6:

we'll see what we can do. You know, so it's like, okay, that's cool. You know? Yeah. So that was a nice little, you know, so now, now I feel, you know, because I, when we made our lightsabers, I had picked a purple light saber.

Speaker 5:

So now I know you feel very Samuel L. Jackson like I do, I'm gonna go snakes on a plane and other various variables. The other interesting thing and

Speaker 8:

in, uh,

Speaker 5:

with his lightsaber was the, when the prop masters, right? The light Seaver, they had engraved something on the, uh, Palm all the bottom of the lightsaber. That was a reference to one of his other movies.[inaudible]

Speaker 8:

Mmm.

Speaker 5:

Which we can't really say. You can go look it up and find it. It was a Pope fiction of pulp fiction. Right, right. And if it's called fiction, we definitely can. But it was just, it was kind of funny, you know, all the stories sort of came out around the time that, uh,

Speaker 4:

I think it was attack of the clones came out cause he didn't really, he didn't wheel the lightsaber and Phantom menace. He didn't get his lightsaber until, uh, get to use his lightsaber until attack of the clones. So all the stories sort of emerged around that time. It was just the, the, the F the, the flavor that he gave to the set. No one talked about that intensity that, that he always brought to the set. So everyone sort of paid tribute to him, like, you know, paid homage to him on the set. So that was always nice. That was a cute little clip that, that surface. So, so what is our Darth Vader bombshell?

Speaker 6:

So obviously there's no new star Wars movie coming out for a while. So, you know, everybody's kind of looking for, for new things. Some people aren't, obviously. Well, there's a new comic book series from writer, uh, Greg park and artist Raphy, L E Nino in. So I always grew up last name. So, um, and it basically follows Darth Vader immediately after the events of the empire strikes back and showing how he had coped with Luke's refusal to join the dark side. Hey, spoiler. Not very well. As it turns out. So he embarked on a mission, um, of revenge to track down basically everybody who hid the boy from him, um, and everybody who made him weak and basically destroy them. Uh, so Darth Vader probably didn't expect to come face to face with an unexpected ghost from his past life as an akin Skywalker. But it's just what happens at the end of the first issue of star Wars. Darth Vader, the series teams, Darth Vader with a talkative data droid Zed six, seven and Vader's revenge mission takes him to tach a ween, revisiting his hometown, um, and he starts having flashbacks of the time that he spent with, um, a Dolla, uh, pad may amygdala. So one crucial fact of flashback comes from revenge of the Sith when pad may reject them on Mustafar and it echoes what he just experienced again with Luke on cloud city. And we see him imagining her in a place of Luke falling down the shaft. Um, but there is no one on tattooing to punish because he basically already got rid of them. Um, but Zed six, seven discovers a security system, um, and shows traces of where Luke had been taken after pad May's death. However, the droid discovers that the recordings for after her death are missing. Um, but that tells us something, um, that someone wanted to hide something. Perhaps she did return or perhaps someone else came after her death, a Zed six, seven ads before finding a transmitter to track down who the security a device is reporting to. And that takes Darth Vader to another area. And after his killing his way through everything, he comes face to face with pad. May Ahmad Dala Dawn, Dawn. So is she dead? Is she not? We saw her funeral and her death after, you know, she gave birth to the twins. Um, but you know, basically, you know, the cover of the issue shows, you know, that I'm a doll. That pad may plays a significant role or is it someone that looks like her, could it be her handmaiden who was a decoy when the whole thing was, was going back and forth in, in the original trilogies or the prequels. I'm sorry. Um, so the, you know, the story kind of goes to to say, you know, you're, there's, there hasn't been confirmation if it is pad made, did she, you know, fake her own death or was it really, um, the handmaiden or is Vader just hallucinating? Crazy, crazy man, crazy old man. And you know, seeing his wife. So, you know, it's something, obviously as the story goes on, there'll be more about it, but kind of a interesting little twist to,

Speaker 4:

well, given what they've done with some of the other things, you know, bringing back Darth Maul, giving him spider legs and bringing back Palpatine, now everyone's coming back. Apparently you can't die in star Wars anymore. You don't really die. So it would not surprise me that, that she's alive and, and you know, the funeral that you see in revenge of the Sith very well could have been her, right? Yeah. Which makes you think was Anacon actually with the decoy or was he with pad may gets really complex.

Speaker 6:

Right. Right. Who's Darth Vader? Because you don't, you know, you never know who's under, you know, everything. Maybe Anneken really died and this was one of Palpatine.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Because you know, he was played by someone completely different in return in the jet. I, that he wasn't revenge of the Sith. So look, nothing like them. You never know. You never know. You never know. So that's it for star Wars insights. We will come back with our entertainment news of the week.

Speaker 9:

Uh,

Speaker 4:

all right. Tell us about some stranger things.

Speaker 6:

So the tray teaser trailer dropped for season four of stranger things and basically it confirms what everybody was, you know, kind of rumored about is that hopper is alive and of course you no.

Speaker 5:

All that means is the tour of the Tom clog to me.

Speaker 6:

Uh, so the, the teaser trailer, which was entitled from Russia with love, uh, reveals a brand new setting for the series, a snow covered landscape of Russia. Um, and we kind of in the last couple of episodes of a season three, we, we saw that that was kind of where they were going with it. Um, because you knew the Russians were the bad guy. Um, and the last,

Speaker 5:

the Russians are always the big guys in American television.

Speaker 6:

1880s. Yeah. You know, and so the, the scene, the, the series ended and you could see that they were back in Russia, um, you know, and that there was somebody that was in a prison cell, but you had no idea who it was. They didn't, you know, mention anything. So, you know, as you can see, the trailer behind us, you know, there's a Chang gang and

Speaker 5:

yeah, yeah. You need it with a Russian accent. Oh, sorry, Victoria.

Speaker 6:

Somebody will have to tell that story. Um, but anyway, at the end of the scene, it does a closeup and it's, it's hopper, um, where in the, uh, final scenes of last season, they're dealing with this, um, nuclear

Speaker 5:

reactor thing. No, no, no nuclear, the Western start Jaguar and you know, the whole thing blows up and you figure that he's dead and that he got blown up, but obviously something sucked him from that universe to someplace else or whatever. So, you know, you have a goatee so you can tell he's the alternate universal. I know, cause he, his hair was all shaped cause he used to have a goatee and he didn't look like he had it looked like he shaved with a telltale sign of the alternate universes if you got to go to that is true. Yeah. So a premiere date hasn't been revealed yet, but probably looking at either later this year or early next year for that. So. Okay. Interesting. So tell us about the Batman.

Speaker 6:

So now we're finally getting a first look at Robert Pattinson's Batman. Um, it was a very, uh, 55. It was a, another teaser trailer. Uh, it was a 55 second trailer where really it kinda, it wasn't until like the last 10 seconds of it that you really could see anything cause it was just, you know, a dark fade, getting a little bit lighter and then all of a sudden you see him, you know, coming forward and, and there he is, you know, as, as the Batman and, and kind of, um, not, uh, you know, still looking like, you know, uh, a guy in his thirties or twenties, like he didn't have that. I've been Batman forever. Kind of look, that's a different series, right? It was, you know, I'm a younger version, you know, and, and kind of cool, like not a full face looks chiseled. Like his feet are so pronounced. Right. But that wasn't really, this was a mock mockup. These pictures, these were, you know, but when you, when you watch the video again, you know, it takes, so it's a 55 second video, takes a while to get to where you actually see him. A little bit of a mask, you know, not the whole cowl and everything. So kind of like, you know, I'm not, you know, the teenager from Gotham, I've kind of moved up, you know, but still kinda kinda gritty. So no pimples on this Batman pimples on this Batman. Okay. Wow. And that was all for entertainment news. How exciting. Short and sweet. We will come back with, well we got all this other stuff to talk about. We'll come back with our insightful picks of the week.

Speaker 9:

Uh,

Speaker 6:

yeah, go, go for your pick of the week. Uh, so my pick of the week, uh, was we had a, um, a pre Valentine's day date because it's really crowded to go out on, on Valentine's day. Oh. And it was a Friday night. Um, so we picked an activity, uh, that I figured I would do as my insightful pick, which is something that this was your first official time doing and this was my third time doing. And that is ax throwing. Nothing says love ain't going to bring constants with you. No, I left her downstairs. Oh man. I should have brought her upstairs. Yeah. That was really kind of funny too cause I brought my little stuffed, uh, stuffed character of Constance who is the bride from the haunted mansion who walks around with an ax. So that was kind of shoes used to kill all of her husbands. Right. That's kind of the important part of that moral of the story. Right. So, so tell us about ax. So ax throwing is a, is a craze that's kind of picked up. Um, in most cases it's really started from the Ren fairs. Um, any, any Ren fair you go to throughout, you know, the country has ax throwing or knife throwing or something. Kind of along the lines of that. And over the last couple of years it's kind of grown as a, um, activity for, you know, get togethers for friends, team-building with work. Uh, they actually have an ax throwing league, um, lot different than a bowling league. Um, there's usually alcohol included, which that kind of scares me that people would go and throw axes. Um, within our area, there's actually two companies that are, uh, around one of them, uh, who we went to on on Wednesday is a primitive acts. They only have two locations within South Jersey. They have a Glassboro location and a Blackwood location. Um, but the other, um, company is bury the hatchet and they actually have 17 locations nationwide. Um, mostly on the East coast. They have a couple, uh, in, in New York they have a bunch of North Jersey, central Jersey, South Jersey. They even have a location in Florida and Kansas. So it's kinda spread, spread all out. And I'm sure there's other companies out there. These just happened to be, you know, the two that, that I've used before. Um, I have it, it's a good stress reliever, you know, and actually it is a cardio workout, even though the ax itself isn't very heavy, the constant throwing, going and picking it up and everything you do get, get a little workout. You know, we were both a little sore. I'm sure Lizzie Borden would definitely attest to how much exercise you, Oh my God, that'd be awesome to do one with Lizzie Borden. Like, and she's like, you can get your picture taken with Lizzie Borden, Zach's throwing. That's awesome. I love it. Um, roughly, you know, it, it costs about, you know, both tend to range from the$40 for two hours. Um, unfortunately the more people you have that go and play the price is still the same. Um, so, you know, our suggestion would be obviously to, to try and do a smaller group because then you get more time actually throwing the axes for the amount of money. Um, you know, we went, we ended up having a group on offer that was a two for one. Um, so it was$40 for the two of us for, for two hours. And that was probably more time than, than the two of us actually, you know, exhausted when we got done. Yeah. So we probably could do, you know, most places do, um, do like a half hour increment or an hour or two hour for, you know, the lane. Um, and it's fun to just go with friends. Uh, both places allow you to bring food there, BYOB. Um, and it's just like a fun, you know, activity definitely gets your, your stress out. Uh, one of the things at primitive acts that I saw on their website is they actually have, I can't remember what the name of it was called, but if you didn't want to just throw axes and you wanted to actually like break stuff that they actually had like a special cage. And I guess like I'm a sledgehammer and goggles where you could actually let out your frustration and the destructive zone I think is what they called it. Um, so yeah, kind of cool. But again, it was, it was a whole new thing. You know, we, you know, we thought about, Oh, maybe we'll do this every couple of months just as a fun little, you know, activity to, to get out of the house, you know, and do so, you know, we'll, we'll say I've, like I said, I've done it before with girlfriends of mine. Um, you know, we were talking about at work, a lot of, you know, you can do it as a team building. Uh, the one time we saw a bachelor party and a bachelorette party was there. Um, you know, when we went it was a very slow night. It was just the two of us there. So that was kind of cool because, you know, we had the lane just to ourselves. We didn't have to share, um, no witnesses. The bodies were buried in the back. So.

Speaker 4:

All right, cool. Nice. Beck. You nice pic. So my pick this week is actually a merchant than I have recently done business with and was very pleased with it is Darwin's props from a is Etsy shop. Darwin's a propped as a merchant shop on Etsy, specializing in screen accurate leather work based in Jacksonville, Florida. They had been selling on Etsy since 2016 with over 3000 sales yielding over a thousand reviews. They currently hold a five star rating from their customers. When I started putting my star Wars themed costume together, I came across some of their work, uh, for a few specialized pieces of the costume. I wound up making two separate purchases from them, the first of which was a neck seal, um, piece that was meticulously made by hand, uh, specifically to my custom measurements, um, satisfied not only with the quality of the work, but also the reasonable price and the delivery time. Uh, they were my first choice when I needed the, to uh, come up with a few finishing pieces. So I sourced to accurate, uh, screen accurate leather belt pouches from Darwin's as well, uh, with an event coming up Zowlow con as a matter of fact, which we'll talk about shortly. Um, I had planned on having the costume, um, for the show. So I reached out after I made the purchase and asked whether or not I'd have the, the pouches and time Bobby Stout, who is the shop owner, responded to my question almost immediately when he found out I needed the items and realized I wouldn't get them in time based on his regular production schedule. He rushed, get the handmade items finished ahead of time and overnighted them to me at no extra charge. So I'd have been time for the convention. That was really cool. I was totally blown away by the level of customer service that he, he offered me. Um, and uh, the quality of, of the items. Um, he offers a, a wide selection of uh, screen accurate items that are all handmade, uh, from belt buckles to belts to holsters, to pouches. Um, you know, he does fantastic work. They're all for the most part, Saifai themed, a lot of star Wars, star Trek theme items on there. Um, I was already a satisfied repeat customer based strictly on the quality of the work and the price cause all of his prices are very reasonable. Uh, but after experiencing the outstanding dedication to customer service, uh, he's made me a a lifetime customer and I thought his handiwork and his, uh, customer service dedication, you should, uh, should be showcased a little bit. So very cool. Doorman's props on Etsy, www.etsy.com/shop/ Darwin's props, D a R M a N S. props, all one word. And that was it for my pics. We'll be back with some afterthoughts. Well, so recap of Zowlow con miss that. We won't be talking about that until next February. Yeah. So you want to just cut to the videos. Let's watch the video and then we can, let me see, Oh wait, it's blown up on the wrong screen. Hang on. Wrong tree. Let's go here and then I can move over here. I can do this, a little bit of that. Then we can do a little rewind and now we can do it.

Speaker 9:

[inaudible]

Speaker 2:

[inaudible]

Speaker 4:

so that was Zowlow con. Okay. So that was Zowlow con. So that was held at the fuse, which is, uh, if I should, I can throw this out real quick. So that is a scale model that's down in the lobby of the Fuge. Uh, and that is basically the main room that the, um, conventions held in and the centrifuge arm and capital.

Speaker 6:

Everything is still there. Yeah. If you go back and you watch the video, you can see, um, and what is kind of neat is that you can, you know, walk up stairs, they have a couple of different ways to get upstairs and one of them when you walk, you can actually, and that's one of the pictures that you, you, that you saw was inside the capsule. You can actually look and say, you know, the, um, the inside of it and not a whole lot of room. Um, you know, and then, you know, so here it is. So here's where you can see there's, there's a little seat that, you know, the astronaut or flight, uh, you know, the tests, the flight test dummy had to sit in. Um, and then what's kind of neat as you go, you know, into the room and it's the control panels. It's all the, you know, original, you know, control panels, uh, are still there. And so that's kind of, you know, one of the aspects that that's just kind of cool cause you know, you don't expect, I'm going to go to a toy show and see, you know, all of this history, you know, that's there. And the other thing that's really neat is as you're walking around, there's pieces from the test facility that are on display around, right. Some of them have plaque describing what they are. Right. So it's like a little museum trip, you know, as well. So, so really kind of cool. Again, one of our favorite locations for us, it's about an hour away. Um, you know, it's funny, you kind of drive, you know, on the highway and then you take some back roads and then you're driving, you're like, where the heck am I? And you come up and here's this, you know, Navy testing, you know, facility just kind of in the back of, of no place else. Um, it did seem like there were a few less vendors there this year. Um, attendance didn't seem as, it didn't seem as crowded this year. Not crowded, right. Past years that we've gone, it's been elbow to elbow in there. Right. So we were trying to figure out, you know, cause it wasn't really weather related. It was a decent day for February. There wasn't, we didn't know of anything else two days this year, which was probably it, right. So previously it was a single day. So you're probably getting your whole crowd one day. True. You're spreading your crowd on ever two days this time. And that's true. That was probably why, you know, um, they have a little food vendor there so you can get, you know, some snacks, you know, no major food while you're, while you're walking around and stuff. Um, you know, some of the vendors, um, you know, we only see at this location because of being out in, you know, in, in the middle of nowhere. Um, some, you know, we've seen in other places, uh, a friend of ours has a friend who, uh, has been doing the, uh, toy show route. So he was there. This was like the second time that we've seen him, uh, at a different, you know, venue and all types of things. So you got a couple of people selling comic books, a sell, you know, a bunch of people selling, you know, brand new toys. Obviously tons of people with, with pops, uh, the vinyl pops and stuff. And then a lot of people with their, you know, own creation. So it's a lot of artists there. Uh, you had some cos players there, right? Some classic toys area. It's a new choice there. So a nice range. It's not just, you know, one type of finisher, comic book person. They had comic book vendors there as well. Yeah. So a little bit of everything you know, for, for one, you know, our daughter does, you know, she's not into little pet shops like she used to be. Right now she's doing Legos and they had people selling Lego kits and then loose Legos. And that's kind of what she's into now is the loose Legos cause she's in that creative mindset of, of doing that. Um, there were a bunch of baby Yoda things, uh, stickers, t-shirts. I ended up picking up, I meant to bring baby Yoda from downstairs upstairs. Um, somebody, um, had crafted, uh, at a CLI, um, and he had baby Yoda and it's, and he has the frog in his mouth. It's just adorable. Uh, so, you know, so I picked up that in a couple of other, uh, you know, little things. Um, you know, so we, we all came home with something, something cool. And, and you got, I ended up getting you for Valentine's day, a, um, interesting version of Darth Vader, um, that we'll have to share. Oh, he is, I didn't even realize he was here,

Speaker 4:

but I don't have him on camera. Hang on.

Speaker 6:

Oh, okay. I'll, I'll keep talking and we can, you know, so we can, yeah. So this was something, we've seen this before, this type of artwork, but I never bought one and one of the vendors had it and it was a decent price. And I went, okay, I'll, I'll buy you for my Darth Vader for Valentine's day and, and let me hold them up.

Speaker 4:

Try not to cut my, yeah, it's a, it's a really cool, uh, mechanicalized version of, of Darth Vader. All metal. Yeah. Um, and it's just, it's just the artwork, you know, the, the talent it takes to build something like that and the time it takes is just incredible.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. So that was to my Darth Vader, you know, for Valentine's day. So

Speaker 4:

nice. So Zowlow con 2020 had a good time. Did so what else would we plug in here?

Speaker 6:

So within the next couple of weeks, uh, monster mania, 45 will be March 13th through 15th in cherry Hill at the crown Plaza, uh, in, uh, on Marlton pike. That's one that we go to, you know, every couple of years. We, we go, they, they do it, uh, in the cherry Hill area, usually in March, and then again in August. Um, various different celebrities. Uh, if you go to a monster mania.net, it'll tell you, you know, all about it with the different prices and everything. Um, and one thing that we, uh, forgot to mention, uh, the end of March is, uh, one of the locations in Delaware that we like to hit, um, that they do a toy show on Saturday. Uh, I'm sorry, a train show on Saturday. And a toy show on Sunday, and that's the, the Delaware train show, uh, will be on Saturday, March 28th from nine to two at the nurse shrine center, um, on DuPont highway. In new castle admission is$5. And then on Sunday is the April fools, um, comic, uh, toy show. And that one, uh, is also$5. Uh, children under 12 are free$10 for early buyers, uh, with an 8:00 AM admission and then$5 if you come, uh, after the fact. So that's one that we like to hit as well. Um, more so kind of flee markety I guess you don't really find that many new toys. It's, it's usually old, you know, use toys, uh, in most cases, but usually a decent variety. Um, you know, and there have been times when we've gone and you know, we haven't really gotten anything, but you know, it's, it's not too far for us. It's maybe about a half an hour. There's also a farmer's market up the road that sometimes will,

Speaker 5:

dealers at the toy show are always willing to deal to you, so you get a good price. Yeah, you can always bargain. Um, you know, and

Speaker 6:

do you know some of the people and usually with them it's usually the same, same vendors, uh, throughout the, you know, it's the same guy. So you know, again, you know, good deals to be had. Uh, so then after March is done, then we move into April and then we have the great Philadelphia comic con in the, uh, at the greater Philadelphia expo center in Oaks. Then the dark, some arts and craft, which will be in Philadelphia on April 19th. Then we got June with pop mania con one, which is the sister to monster mania. That'll be pop culturey, not just horror stuff. Um, and then obviously Keystone comic con will be the end of August. And then rounding out the end of September, we got retro 20, 20.

Speaker 5:

All right. That's a, that's a lot of conventions coming up. I'm sure somewhere in there is a wizard world that we probably won't be going to again. Right. But we probably should, should at least log it. We'll plug it just cause we'll see what the prices are, see if they price themselves out again. Probably. Yeah. But Hey, if you go to Disney it's probably only like$50 more.$20 more for Disney. See, there you go. That's where Disney, nevermind. I'll be quiet. So I think that's all we have for today. I think that is it. I think we are done. Our contact info. Oh, that too. Yeah, just in case. Just in case you wanted to contact. So you can email us@commentsatinsightsintothings.com or on Twitter at insights underscore things. Our videos are available on youtube.com/insights into things on the web@wwwdotinsightsintothings.com the audio version of our podcast

Speaker 4:

are available, podcast and insights in entertainment.com and on Facebook we are facebook.com backslash insights into things podcast. Oh and one afterthought here. When programming note, uh, I thought I had resolved the issue with the video subscriptions on the podcast. I did not. We are continuing to post them to our YouTube channel, but I'm in the process of trying to set up a new hosting provider for our video podcast, so I hope to have that available for us by this time next week. So that's it. Okay. The one in the books. Have a good week everyone. Bye.

Speaker 2:

[inaudible].