Creator Spotlight: Victor Larson (NomNom Verse)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment.
Wait for it Gaming.
Wait for it Anime.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
PLUS ULTRA.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino.
Yeah, they've got you covered,and all you gotta do is wait for
it.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
This is the Wait For it Podcast.
Hey, everyone, welcome back tothe Wait For it Podcast.
I'm your co-host, phil Barrera,aka Phil the Filipino.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
And I'm your other co-host, Mr Eric Almighty, and
for this edition of CreatorSpotlight, we have a very
special guest that we metthrough the convention scene,
specifically if you were here inJacksonville at Bold Matsuri,
we were able to have thepleasure to meet this individual
and Phil.
That's the thing I love themost about conventions is we get
to meet great people like ourguests today.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, we just continue to add to our infinity
stone of creators every time wego to Bold or Collective or
Ocala, comic-con or Brick City,whatever it may be.
So, you know, we've had voiceactors on, we've had so many,
you know, so many other artistsand so many other people that
we've gotten to meet from allacross the creative mindset and

(01:22):
the creative board and veryexcited to bring in Victor
Larson of NomNom.
Victor, how are you doing heretonight?
Thank you so much for joiningus.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Thank you guys for having me.
I'm doing wonderful.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, super excited to get into this conversation.
We have a lot to talk aboutwhen it comes to NomNom and also
just getting to know you as acreator, as well as playing a
fun game here at the end of thisepisode.
So, if you're new to thepodcast maybe you're coming from
the Nom Nomverse or if you justfound us for the first time and
you want to know how to keep upwith everything that Victor is

(01:55):
up to, as well as the way for apodcast, make sure you stick
around to the very end and we'lllet you know where you can find
all of that.
But, victor, to bring it backto you, please introduce
yourself.
Let us know what it is that youdo and all of that well, first
and foremost I am a illustrator.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
That's how I kind of broke on to the the scene that
I'm in, uh, with trading cardsand tabletop gaming.
I was discovered on Instagramand my very first job within the
TCG realm was MetaZoo.
I worked for them as an artdirector and artist for about

(02:37):
three years and then I left thatcompany to kind of start my own
adventure, which led me todeveloping my own trading card
game, which is Nom Nom Verse.
The world of Nom Nom itself issomething I have been working on
for roughly the last decadegive or take.

(02:59):
The world itself is pretty muchto summarize.
It is kind of a playground formy imagination to go crazy with.
My interests are kind of allover the place.
You know, along with many of us, you know, we like so many

(03:19):
different fandoms and stuff, andso I have a lot of different
inspirations coming in from somany different angles that at
one point, as a young artist, Iwas working on anything from
characters to creatures, kaijudinosaurs to samurai ninjas just
so many different interests andone day I was kind of sitting

(03:41):
there like I kind of I needsomething to like harbor all of
these creations into one projectso that, no matter what I
worked on, it could all kind ofgo towards something, because as
a illustrator, you're oftenasked to work on something over

(04:03):
and over and over and over andthat can be a little bit
draining and you can feel alittle bit caged as a creative.
So I wanted something aschaotic as the creations that I
make.
So thus the world of Nom Nomwas born, the world itself.
It exists in the crosshairsbetween, or the crossroads

(04:27):
between, dimensions anduniverses.
I have a saying that goes alldoorways lead to nom nom.
It's pretty much this ancientplanet that is so sci-fi that it
feels like fantasy.
Sci-fi that it feels likefantasy.

(04:50):
So it many, many civilizationshave built itself up on this
world, only to be wiped out andthen built upon again to be
wiped out, and so it has allthese ancient technologies and
weird artifacts and relics leftover from previous civilizations
that I guess you could say thetime period that the current

(05:10):
setting takes place kind offeels.
Industrial.
People are starting to figureout this world that they live in
and, as chaotic as it is,people are starting to get
comfortable.
Luxury is becoming a thingwithin the world.
But yeah, it's got everything.

(05:34):
I can kind of go off on tangents, so just slow me down if I get
too deep here.
But it's very much likeindustrial and you know, people
are starting to get comfortableand I guess that's where things
start to go awry, if you will.
People are getting toocomfortable and people are

(05:55):
starting to make the mistakesthat we see very much in the
real world.
And yeah, without digging toodeep here, here the world of nom
nom has everything.
There's a lot of stones to turn, a lot of paths that you can
take in this world and nom nomverse the trading card game, or

(06:18):
I like to call it a trading cardrole-playing game, and we can
get into like gameplay a littlebit later.
But nomnomverse itself kind oftakes a little bit of everything
from the whole world and kindof squishes it into this, uh,
trading card role-playing gamethat I've developed yeah, that's

(06:40):
awesome.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
and know the.
As far as the designs, they aretruly unique, which I'm sure is
really difficult to do in theTCG space.
You know as, as far as for me,I've never really gotten into
playing a TCG.
I've always been more so of acollector and anything that

(07:02):
looks truly unique that would bereally fun to display, like the
Nom Nom creations have that Iactually remember seeing you
guys.
You guys were at Spookalaearlier in the year, right Am.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
I.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
Okay, cool, and I remember every time I walked by
the table like it was packed, sothat's always really, really
great to see.
So what kind of maybechallenges do you see when
you're creating these creaturesto truly make them unique and
avoid the inevitable Pokemon?
You know it's.

(07:35):
What are we like?
Five minutes in Pokemon wasgoing to come up.
So how do you avoid thosecomparisons and make sure that
you ensure that you're makingsomething truly unique?

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Well, that's a great question, and I don't think you
really do.
It's truly hard to createsomething 100% original.
I mean, you ask any artist thatdoes have an original, whether
it be art style or whateverthey're creating, whether it's

(08:08):
music, art, you know, movies,books, everybody's inspired by
something, and just a goodexample of this is take jjrr
token.
You have the lords of the ring,which, without lords of the
ring, a lot of the Ring, which,without Lords of the Ring, a lot
of the fantasy that we havetoday wouldn't exist.
But even Token, you know, hadinspirations from religion.

(08:33):
So, to answer your question,though I don't think it's so
much hiding the fact that hesaid Pokemon, you know, hiding
the fact that he said Pokemon,you know, like my art style
definitely resonates somewhatwith a Pokemon-esque style, but
that's simply because I grew upwith it.

(08:54):
You know, all three of us grewup with Pokemon, you know,
through the nineties and earlytwo thousands, and you know all
the anime that we have watchedover the years.
I think it's simply not to hidethat, but to embrace it,
embrace the inspirations thatyou have.

(09:15):
When young artists come up to meand they ask me, how do I get
to where you are, I simply justtell them don't be afraid to
dive into your inspirations,dive into what you like, because
there's actually a word forthis.
It's called pastiche.
I think I'm saying that right.
It means to practice in anotherone's art form, and there's

(09:37):
nothing wrong with it.
You know, a lot of youngartists are worried well, I
don't want to be called an artthief and stuff.
Artists are worried well, Idon't want to be called an art
thief and stuff, and I totallyget that.
But if you feel like you areriffing too hard on another
artist or another creator,simply give credit, for credit
is due and there's nothing wrongwith that.

(09:59):
But what I believe is a verystrong practice is pastiche.
You know, practice in otherpeople's art form.
Because what happens is, onceyou've done that and then come
back to your own drawing boardand your own way of developing
things, you always come backwith something new, like there's

(10:20):
something that you learned fromthose practices that really
resonates with you, whateverthat is.
And so when you come back andyou're trying to develop your
own unique style or what makesyou as an individual stand out,
you'll find that you pick upthese skills or techniques that

(10:44):
you really like and you add thatto your repertoire and as you
do more and more of that, youbegin to cultivate something
unique.
So when you look at Nam Nam andI think over the last few years
people have come up to me andthey're like, oh, this really

(11:07):
reminds me of this or thisreally reminds me of that, and
it's just funny to me becauseit's like people can pinpoint
those inspirations and I don'tthink there's anything wrong
with that.
So to all you young artists outthere, do it, practice in

(11:37):
another one's art form and ifyou feel like you are
overstaying your welcome, givecredit, give shoutouts to the
people that inspire you.
You never know when your heroesmight notice you and compliment
your artwork and stuff.
So I encourage people to notlimit themselves by staying in
their own lane for lack of abetter explanation, but go crazy

(12:02):
, try what inspires you.
You know at least once andyou'll.
You'll be surprised what youcome back to your own palette
with and you'll grow, you'll.
You'll grow more and more eachtime you do this.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yeah, that's really great advice.
And, victor, you know, one ofthe things that I think really
speaks to what you're saying is,you know, having that artistic
integrity like that's huge right, like especially in your work
and your line of work.
I think one of the questionsthat I find interesting, based
off of our conversation so far,is just the fact that you said

(12:38):
that you've been working on NomNom for over a decade.
You obviously have so manyinfluences that go into that and
so many creativity that'sflowing over the years.
So what has that experiencebeen like?
What are some of the highs andthe lows of working on a project
with so much dedication, somuch passion, so much heart over

(13:01):
all of these years and seeingsome things come to fruition and
, I'm sure, some things thatdidn't?
I'd be really interested toknow, like, what your experience
has been like over the pastdecade, if you can boil that
down for our audience.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, I'll do my best .
So I was actually working in aroad construction before I set
out to pursue art.
I was about 25, 26 years oldand I will be 33 in August, and
I was miserable.
I was working 12-hour days andto me it felt like I was working

(13:43):
myself into an early grave, andwhy?
You know, I didn't have anykids, didn't have a wife, so I
was just like why not pursue art, something I've always wanted
to do?
So pretty much I quit my job, Ijust quit.
I got a part-time job atMichael's discounts on art

(14:07):
supplies and I got a part-timejob at a gym Stay in shape, stay
active and I started to reallydig my heels into my craft.
You know, sharpen my tools ifyou will.
And, um, I didn't really knowwhat I was doing.
You know, I've been drawingever since I was a kid, pretty

(14:29):
much ever since anime hitamerica really hard back in the
90s when dragon ball z blew up,pokemon blew up.
The little me back then wasjust in love with the art style,
the animation and stuff, andthat's kind of where it all
started.
So I've kind of been an artistmy whole life.

(14:51):
But how do I make that a career, I guess pretty much.
I had been off of social mediafor a good like three, four
years at this point in time andI was just like, well, how do I
get myself out there?
You know and this is rightaround the time that Instagram

(15:12):
was really really popular it waskind of like before TikTok came
out and took off and stuff.
So what I did was, you know, Istarted, I started back up my
social medias and I figured if Ireally want to get myself out
there, that would be a goodplatform to do so.
So I started posting my art andstill not really knowing what

(15:37):
I'm doing, I just did my best topractice my craft and show
people, to practice my craft andshow people.
And a few years went by, workingpart-time jobs while trying to
focus on my art, trying to sellit, which is very funny because
you know at one point in yourart career like you're super

(16:01):
excited just to get somebody tobuy your art.
Like I remember doing sketchcards for $10 a commission and
if anybody got a commission,like that was the biggest deal
to me.
And I remember like the firsttime I ever had somebody outside
of the United States buy one ofmy sketch cards too, I was just
like, oh my God, I'm aninternational artist now.

(16:23):
Sketch cards too.
I was just like, oh my God, I'man international artist now.
So, yeah, it was just all aboutjust trying new things and
really just getting myself outthere, cause you know a lot of
artists, being a creative it'svery personable and putting
yourself out there can be reallyhard because you open yourself

(16:45):
up to criticism, which I didattend college for a short
period of time just to try itout, and I did take an art
course during that time.
And one of the first thingsthey'll teach you is how to
properly criticize and how tocritique, if you will, someone

(17:06):
else's art.
And I totally get why it's oneof the first lessons they teach
you, because, since it is sopersonable and art is so
subjective, I mean somebodycould be really scared to put
themselves out there, and themoment they do, someone bashes
them, which is like a turtle intheir shell.

(17:28):
You know they finally steppedout of their comfort zone and
someone jabbed them with a stickand now they're back in their
shell.
So it can be really hard to do,but I, just, like I said, I
just dug my heels in and justwent for it and a few years went

(17:51):
by and I finally got noticed bysomebody.
His name's Mike Waddell.
He was the original creator ofa game called MetaZoo and he
reached out to me pretty muchasking me hey, would you be
interested in creating a tradingcard game?
And I get this message and it'slike yeah, ever since I was a

(18:12):
kid.
So I saw that as my moment, myopportunity, and so I started
doing artwork for MetaZoo and itstarted to gain traction Zoo
and it started to gain traction.

(18:32):
So I took another chance at thewhole art thing and I quit my
part-time job, which at thistime I was working at a bus
company.
I was pretty much putting inlike first aid kits and fire
extinguishers into school busesright before they went out the
door, extinguishers into schoolbuses right before they went out
the door.
And I quit that job to workfull time on MetaZoo.
And you were talking about thehighs and lows, eric.

(18:53):
There was many moments when Iwas just like, did I put too
many eggs in this basket?
But I definitely believe.
You know, if you truly believein what you're doing, bet on
yourself.
Bet on yourself over and overagain, even if it doesn't work
out the first time, just keep onbetting on yourself, because if

(19:14):
you're truly passionate, itwill eventually work out for you
.
What's the saying Fake it tillyou make it Like, believe it or
not, like I really do feel likeit works eventually.
People want instantgratification, which is
understandable.
But I mean, I was always kindof fine with the.

(19:38):
If I'm 60, 60 years old and itfinally works out out, I was
fine with that.
But at the time when I wasdoing all this, my whole theory
was like, if this doesn't workout by the time I'm 30, I can
always get another job and kindof start over with a new career
that way.

(19:58):
But MetaZoo eventually did kindof take off and it it was crazy
actually it took off quite a bit.
Um, at one point metazoo was,you know, on billboards and
times square and stuff.
So we were at new yorkcomic-con and I eventually was
traveling a lot from conventionto convention and we were doing

(20:23):
more and more sets and it justworked out for me, you know, and
I definitely feel like luck wason my side because there's so
many talented artists out there.
Mike Waddell could havemessaged hundreds of different
artists.
But if you get that opportunity.

(20:44):
Don't be scared to take it.
It might not work out, but itwill eventually work out.
If you lean into something,it's bound to work eventually.
But eventually it got to thepoint where I wasn't happy with
MetaZoo.
Point where I wasn't happy withMetaZoo.

(21:10):
I wasn't like miserable either,but I just felt like I have way
too much up here in my noggin.
You know that I need to get outthere, and with MetaZoo I felt
somewhat caged.
Metazoo is a game aboutcryptids and stuff.
So Bigfoot, the Loch NessMonster, mothman, things like
that, and so all that stuff isgreat, really cool.

(21:35):
But I had all these own ideas ofmine that I wanted to get out
there.
So I left the company and Istarted my own studio, senpai
Studio.
And through Senpai Studio I hadpeople reach out to me previous
fans of mine that followed methrough my work with MetaZoo,

(21:58):
and I didn't really know what Iwas going to do.
Everybody was like looking tome you know, what are you going
to do next?
What are you going to do next?
I worked on a few other games.
I did art for a few othertabletop games and it eventually
came to me.
You know, I was like well,before MetaZoo I had been
working on Nom Nom and I putthat on the back burner.

(22:21):
So I just like, well, I got aperfect IP to develop and flesh
out and it was nom nom.
So I started working on thatagain and I had people reach out
to me saying they, they wantedto be part of the thing that I
was working on next.
So it slowly grew over the lastthree years.

(22:43):
It went through many differentphases and we eventually asked
ourselves what do we all know,what do we all love?
And we all stood on the samecommon ground of trading card
games.
So that's inevitably what itbecame.
But we didn't want to justcreate another indie TCG God

(23:05):
knows there's plenty of thoseout there.
So we really wanted to dosomething different.
So we were like, well, what ifwe took board games and tabletop
RPGs like Dungeons, dragons andwhat we know, which is trading
card games?
And we kind of mushed all ofthese together and thus Nom Nom

(23:25):
Verse was born, which is tradingcard games.
And we kind of mushed all ofthese together and thus nom nom
verse was born.
So, eric, I feel like I was allover the place, you know
answering your question but uh,yeah, so pretty much to to
answer your questions.
You know there's going to be alot of highs and lows when
you're chasing a dream and Icould get get more into that if
you guys like.

(23:46):
But seriously, just lean intoit.
If you have a good idea, it'sworth chasing.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, I think you did a great job kind of giving us
an overview I mean again, adecade is such a long time and
to be able to tell your story.
We're glad that we're able todo that and have our audience
hear a little bit more about thejourney.
Because, phil, I think you knowyou could definitely speak to
this as well We've definitelybeen big believers in just doing
it Like if we haven't learnedanything in the world of

(24:14):
podcasting, content creation inthe convention scene and all the
things that we're working onnow, like Phil right, that's
like our biggest thing.
So, yeah, what Victor wastalking about there really spoke
to me.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, how many guests have we had on or people we've
talked to at conventions wherethey're like well, I started off
in this and then I ended upwhere I am now, so it's never
linear.
Like one of the best examples,like remember, a couple of years
ago we had Adasa on, who voicesDolores from Encanto, and she
was a singer.
She didn't have a lot ofmomentum but she was putting out

(24:48):
videos on YouTube and a Disneyexecutive saw her YouTube video
and reached out to her Right andthen that's amazing, she's an
Encanto.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Yeah, like that.
That's how that goes.
I watched that last night withmy girlfriend.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
I mean a huge, huge film.
Huge film, you know, made a tonof money, so and then now she's
part of the disney family forlife.
So, uh, you never know who'sgoing to reach out to you.
Like I started off doinglisteners have heard this before
I 10 years ago, I thought Iwanted to do stand-up comedy all
the time, and then it was, and,and I still, of course, want to
do podcasting full-time as well, but then that led into voice
acting.

(25:27):
You know what I mean, and Ericand I have had this conversation
and I think it's hard forpeople who and this is no shade
Everybody has their own journey,but people who aren't
necessarily focused on acreative journey.
It's hard for people tounderstand when someone just
leaves or just focuses on theirdream, and I think that's

(25:47):
something that, no matter whereyou come from, so, like as an
artist, like how many of ourartist friends that we talked to
, like they just went for itbecause they were miserable at a
nine to five, they didn't wantto work 12 hour shifts like
you're talking about.
So, and while it is possible tostill do those things on the
side, like all of us can't youknow, I still have a 95.
I still have a day job.
We still got day jobs.
But when you're off the clockand you want to work on

(26:08):
something that you're trulypassionate about, like that will
show through, you know, andmaybe you don't end up doing
exactly what you thought youwere going to do, but you'll
figure out where it is thatyou're you're supposed to be.
So all of that is is really,really great.
I would love to know becauseyou did kind of hint at it a
little bit earlier as far as themechanics of the game.
As somebody who, again, Ididn't really dabble into the

(26:33):
actual TCG, I know Eric wouldplay with his siblings in cheat,
so he knows all about that.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
You don't have to bring it up.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
I feel like you love to bring it up, so I don't know.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
You don't have to bring it up.
I feel like you love to bringit up, so I don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
I may or may not have summoned the heart of the cards
playing Yu-Gi-Oh, because I hadthe last card.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
I needed under the rug or carpet that we were
playing on that may or may nothave happened, but it led to the
best moments, just like theanime.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
We call it cheating, eric calls it top decking.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
There we go, there we go call it cheating, eric calls
it top decking.
There we go.
So whenever you're creatingsomething brand new and you're
responsible for how themechanics work and the rules and
everything like that, how doyou manage that?
Because it's one thing to dothe illustrations and to bring
the characters to to print, buthow do you go about actually

(27:24):
telling people?
Here's how you play, and isthere a lot of trial and error
in that too?

Speaker 1 (27:30):
Oh yeah, so I did not do it alone.
I did have a team around me,not a big team, but I did have
my friend, johnny Dunn.
So shout out to Johnny.
He became my research anddevelopment guy but in the early
stages, during alpha testingand stuff, it was just me and
him late nights.

(27:51):
He actually lives over inMontana, so in fact none of the
team was here in Minnesota withme.
So a lot of late nights onDiscord discussing trial and
error, flying him out toMinnesota to run alpha testing
and stuff on multiple occasionsand yeah, a lot goes into it, in

(28:26):
fact a lot more than and I'msure anybody that has you guys
included you know, when you yougot an idea and then you start
that idea and then all of asudden you realize what am I
doing?
Yeah, no, it's just like, ohwell, we need to do this and we
need to do that and oh well, weforgot about this.
It's.
It's crazy how much stuff goesinto certain projects that you
don't even think about untilyou're doing it.

(28:49):
It's like starting a businessWell, do you have business
insurance?
It's just like, uh, no, Ididn't even think about that.
Well, what if somebody walks inthe door and slips.
Like I started an art gamestudio.
I didn't really think ofsomebody slipping on my floor,
you know.
So, yeah, so much goes into itand I was lucky to have the team

(29:14):
that I had around me.
They were also very passionateand we were very, you know, all
of us were very inexperienced.
You know, all of us were veryinexperienced.
Speaking of highs and lows,eric, recently my team stepped
away from the project.
Nom Nom Verse is still verymuch going and I'd be more than

(29:35):
happy to talk more about this,but there's just so much that
goes into it from marketing,advertising, taxes, just the
whole nine yards that we got toa point where we just needed so
much more than what we knew wecould do, what we knew how to do
, that we all literally had totake a step back and kind of do

(29:58):
what was best for each of us,you know, as individuals.
However, that's all part of it.
It's like sometimes you justgot to take a step back to look
at the big picture again andthen zero in and work out the
details.
But as far as, like the gameplaygoes, we knew we wanted to
create.
You know me and Johnny, we knewwe.

(30:19):
We knew what we liked.
We had a vague picture in ourhead of what we wanted the game
to be, but it all felt likeuncharted territory, uncharted
waters, and we set sail anywayand we started to mess around
with gameplay.
We started off with what weknew and, like I said, we kind

(30:42):
of combined elements fromtrading card games to like
Dungeons, dragons, tabletop RPGsand board games classic, you
know, japanese role-playinggames, you know like elements
from video games as well, and wejust started like kind of okay,

(31:04):
we kind of want this, we kindof want this, and we just kind
of brought all these ideas andthen we started kind of slowly
piecing it all together, kind ofslowly piecing it all together.
And so, as far as the gameplayof Nom Nom Verse goes, you can
really see that when you sitdown and start to learn how to

(31:24):
play, essentially what you'retrying to do in a game of Nom
Nom Verse is you're trying toput together a party of
champions heroes, if you willand it's a party of three, that
classic party of three thewarrior, the mage and the rogue
and you're leveling them up,you're equipping powerful

(31:45):
artifacts to them, you'reincorporating relics and other
powerful items to.
Essentially, you're taking yourparty and you're going into
what we call the dungeon, whichis made up of five sector cards.
You put up five sector cardsand your opponent puts up five
sector cards and these sectorcards resemble places within Nom

(32:09):
Nom, like, for instance, onesector card is Zoe's garage and
I actually sent you guys anillustration of Zoe so you guys
can check her out, but she has agarage and that's one of the
cards.
So these sectors make up whatwe call the dungeon and you move
your champions through thisdungeon back and forth, you know

(32:33):
strategically, to take downyour opponent's boss and you
also have a boss, and then.
So on the left side of thefield you have your champions
and then on the right side ofthe field you have your what we
call nomsters, which are justlike creatures, animals from the
world of nom nom, and thesenomsters are kind of your, your

(32:55):
defense, because your party isgoing up against their nomsters
and their boss, while on theother side, their party is going
up against your nomsters andyour boss.
So you kind of have these twodifferent games being played on
each side of the dungeon andthere's two win cons you can
either KO their boss or you canKO their entire party, which is

(33:19):
all three champions.
Both will yield you a win.
However, we do have liketournament formats too, where
it's more based off of, like apoint system.
So most trading card games cantake place within an hour.
Most trading card games cantake place within an hour.
Since we did kind of developlike this whole new gaming

(33:40):
experience.
Our games can last quite a bitlonger in some cases.
Sometimes they can wrap upwithin 30 minutes, sometimes
they can take almost two hours,and we kind of felt okay with
this, since we were kind ofcombining all these different
elements.
But, yeah, we were like, well,all these different elements.
But yeah, we, we were like,well, what if we don't have two

(34:01):
hours?
What if we want to wrap this upquicker?
So we created a point systemand so, yeah, I feel like I'm
kind of getting lost in my ownthoughts right now, but no,
pretty much game gameplay tookus about two years to develop

(34:21):
and Nom Nom itself, the world ofNom Nom, went through many
stages, like at one point weweren't even going to be a
tabletop game.
We were actually discussingbeing a mobile game that
incorporated like NFTs, if youwill.
However, I personally didn'tfeel comfortable opening that
can of fishhooks.
But I felt like creating NFTswith like utility would be

(34:46):
really cool.
Like imagine you're playingMortal Kombat and you're not
just using Sub-Zero, youactually own the Sub-Zero in the
game.
That's kind of what we wantedto create at one point, too,
where it was still like a card,a collectible card.
Like you got a pack of cards,but on these cards you would
have like QR codes that youwould scan into this mobile game

(35:09):
and then you had those piecesto use in the game.
So yeah, like it went throughmany stages before we landed on
what it became yeah, lots of,and we hear that a lot with.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
Whatever the creative process may be like, it started
off as one thing and then endedup that ended up ultimately
being better for the, the wholeprocess.
So that's.
That's very interesting and,eric, we're no stranger to
evolving as the time goes on,especially here at the podcast.
The rip to those episodes noone will ever hear.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Yeah, no, and and again, I think as you're growing
there's there's always the uhdesire to not look back at stuff
that you kind of view withdifferent eyes because you have
different experiences now.
Uh, that's always, I think, theinteresting part of being a
creator.
But just kind of pivoting alittle bit into the conversation

(36:02):
, victor, I would love to know alittle bit.
When we talk about pop culturein general, one of the things we
really like to dive into youmentioned some of the early days
and some of those earlyinfluences.
Just kind of in the last fiveyears you know, keeping it in
the 2020s what have beenprojects that have either
inspired you or really engrossedyou into their worlds or their

(36:26):
franchises, whether you takethose inspirations or just as a
fan, consuming that genre orthat media, what have you been
enjoying here in, like the lastcouple of years?

Speaker 1 (36:36):
or that media.
What have you been enjoyinghere in, like, the last couple
of years?
That's actually a really goodquestion, eric, because over the
last five years I've honestlyfell off of the anime train
quite a bit.
That's not to say that Ihaven't, you know, watched
Attack on Titan and my Hero andDemon Slayer and all these other
great new modern animes andstuff.

(36:58):
But man, it's a littleupsetting because I have so much
that I want to watch and stuff.
But I guess when you're workingon your own projects and stuff
you can kind of fall kind ofbehind on, uh, the latest pulp
culture references and stuff.
Like, for instance, I've seenthat, uh, that tiger from, uh,

(37:23):
k-pop hunter uh everywhere and Ihad no idea where it was from
and until literally just todayand I was like, oh, that that's
from k-pop hunter, whatever,demon hunter, yeah, and I had no
idea, you know.
So, honestly, I'm trying tothink of like a current, like

(37:46):
favorite of mine, yeah, yeah andit can be in the world of anime
.

Speaker 3 (37:50):
it can be, you know, a television show you finally
picked out of your queue andjust really got you gripped.
It could be be a movie, a videogame, really anything under the
sun that has kind of reallygripped you in any way.
Maybe it tugged a heartstring,maybe it evoked an emotion, or
you just thought it was reallyfucking cool, like K-pop Demon

(38:12):
Hunters for me.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
And I also feel like a lot of the stuff that I've
currently been watching is stufffrom like longer ago, like I
finally just watched BreakingBad all the way through for the
first time, which I feel likeI'm I'm really late to that.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
Yeah, no, those fit the description perfectly.
I mean we do a series calledLate to the Party where we
literally just touch on popculture classics that we missed
out on.
So love to hear anybodywatching Breaking Bad for the
first time.
That's a great, great show.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
Yeah, you might have to invite me to that show
because, like, let's see, I justrecently watched.
My girlfriend introduced me toa movie called the Boy and the
Beast.
I'd say that's one of mycurrent new favorites.
I'm huge into Godzilla.
All the Godzilla Give me more.

(39:06):
So what Legendary has beendoing with the Monsterverse?
I've really enjoyed that.
Yes, love it you might.
Actually.
I got some, uh, some godzillamerchandise.
I got a shelf of godzillas inthis room.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
I feel you nice, nice .

Speaker 1 (39:27):
I'm really into kaiju , which I still haven't watched.
Kaiju number eight.
So pretty disappointing, I know, but uh, it is on my list.
I just recently re-watchedgurren lagann with my girlfriend
.
Um, I'd say that is top threefor me.
See, I grew up with naruto likethat.

(39:49):
That was my show growing up.
I love my hero.
I love the art for my Hero,which, since I got my Hero
brought up here, I love what theartist did, how he took kind of
a Western comic book styleincorporated into the manga
style.

(40:10):
That's something that I wasalso trying to do, but I guess
kind of reverse with my style.
I'm a big fan of self-shadingand stuff like that.
Growing up, my dad is a hugecomic book collector.
I'd say that's kind of how Ibecame who I am today was at a

(40:30):
very young age being shownSpider-Man and DC and Marvel and
stuff.
Vinland Saga I love vinlandsaga.
I need to catch up on it, butuh, very much enjoyed vinland
saga I I love, uh, when it comesto like storytelling, I I like
when a story doesn't pullpunches, which is probably one

(40:53):
of the reasons I enjoyedBreaking Bad so bad, so much is.
I love when storytellers aren'tafraid to kill off your
favorite character.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Have consequences.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Yeah, I just feel like a good storyteller when
done right.
I love when somebody can, likelike you said, pull at your
heartstrings and make you sadabout a fictional character that
doesn't exist, you know which.
Not to go off off track here,uh, too much.

(41:29):
But I'm actually good friendswith bryce pappenbrook and he's
actually an advocate for Nom NomVerse and he's also agreed to
do the voice of Ralph, who isthe main character within the
very first story I plan to tellwithin the world of Nom Nom on

(41:58):
track.
I think one of the reasonsbryce is one of the most
celebrated voice actors inenglish dubbed anime is because
he is so emotional and he reallyreally digs in deep to his
characters and stuff and I Ithink that's one of the reasons
people like subbed, overdubbedis.
And not to throw shade at anyof the voice actors here in

(42:21):
america, but I feel like onething that and maybe it's
because of the, the language youknow, uh, but japanese voice
actors are so emotional andreally, you know, bring it to
the table when they're doingtheir voice acting and stuff

(42:41):
that I feel like one voice actorhere in America that does that
very well is Bryce and so hugefan of the work that Bryce has
put out.
From you know, attack on Titanto Sword Art Online has put out.
From you know, attack on titanto sword art online.
I'm a big studio ghibli fan.
I love studio ghibli very muchenjoyed, uh, the boy and the

(43:04):
heron.
I'd say porco rosso is probablymy favorite ghibli movie.
Oh, um yeah, why do you say?

Speaker 3 (43:13):
that, uh, phil.
Phil is a resident, uh, studioghibli hater, but oh, really, uh
.
But I mean to be fair, he'sonly seen three films, uh, and
we did both see porco rosso andit.
Uh, it did not hitunfortunately.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yeah, um, honestly, did you watch it when?

Speaker 3 (43:30):
it came out, though, like or like.
Not when it came out, but like,obviously either around that
time or like has it been a whilesince you watched it, because
we watched it with 20-20 eyes,so, like in the 2020s, I don't
know how someone would react tothat movie for the first time.
So, like, was that an earlyinfluence on you or something
recent?

Speaker 1 (43:49):
So Porco Rosso came out the year I was born, so, but
I actually experienced PorcoRosso during my tenure in
college.
I was actually the president ofthe anime club, and so I got to
experience Porco Rosso for thefirst time through anime club,

(44:09):
which was almost 10 years ago.
And one thing I love aboutStudio Ghibli is the
storytelling that takes place inStudio Ghibli movies are so, so
imaginative.
They're very, very chaotic in asense that sometimes it's hard

(44:30):
to follow.
You know it's like you blinkand the next thing you know
you're in a completely differentworld.
It's like you blink and in thenext thing you know you're in a
completely different world.
So yeah, I guess Porco Rossofor me.
I'm a big Michael Keaton fan, soI've also noticed that in the

(44:52):
English dubbed versions ofStudio Ghibli movies, almost
every single Batman has been ina Studio Ghibli movie, from
Robert Pattinson to ChristianBale as Hal, from Howl's Moving
Castle to Michael Keaton asPorco.
I've always kind of enjoyedthat.
I don't know if it'sintentional, but at this point I
feel like it is.
It's gotta be.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
Maybe that's why Ben Affleck's Batman failed.
Has he been in a Ghibli film?

Speaker 1 (45:18):
Nope, maybe he needs to.
So there you go.
Who knows, who knows, he mightbe though, or might eventually,
but I'm curious which movieshave you seen, phil?

Speaker 2 (45:31):
We have watched the Boy and the Heron Porco Rosso
and Spirited Away.
Okay.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
We've watched that for the podcast.
I've casually watched Howl'sMoving Castle, kiki's Delivery
Service.
I've seen a little bit more toknow.
They're nice films.
I think the one I like the mostis Spirited Away.
But even on the first watch Idid not vibe with the movie very
well.
I didn't mesh with it becauseyou described it perfectly as

(45:58):
something that you loved aboutit.
That's exactly probably how wefeel about them watching it a
second time I went in with alittle bit more of that like
expectation.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
And.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
I was pleasantly surprised and that's very much a
vibe movie Like.
If that movie is on, I would ahundred percent sit down and
watch it and I'd maybe even showit to somebody else, but it'd
probably be with thatexpectation of you.
Know, it's a very fantasticaltype of movie.
You kind of have to move notonly suspension of belief to the
side but also just like yourexpectations personally of what

(46:31):
you're expecting a film to giveyou, because this movie is only
interested in giving you what itwants to give you.
And that can be a good thingand I think that's how a lot of
studio ghibli films have been.
We're gonna see whether or notit's a miyazaki thing, because I
have been telling phil I'mgonna watch grave of the
fireflies, which is a ghiblifilm, but it's not a miyazaki

(46:52):
film and uh, that's a contenderfor a late to the party and I'd
like to see because that's amovie people hold up in high
regard.
I'm very curious to see if youknow that that is the one that
hits and maybe it's a Miyazakithing and we're just not in the
same wavelength as him.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Yeah, miyazaki is definitely a very unique
individual, hard to pin down.
In fact, I've read a couplearticles about him that kind of
leave you scratching your head,because I guess his son was the
one that worked on the Wizard ofEarthsea adaptation of Studio

(47:30):
Ghibli.
And I love the Tales fromEarthsea book.
I think it's a great read, butapparently Miyazaki walked out
of it and it's just like welldang, his own son worked on that
and he walked out of it.
I do not know if this is like100% true or not you never know

(47:52):
what you're reading on theinternet but I have read that I
guess he's a pretty depressedindividual and I think it's
interesting because of what heputs out there too, because you
watch his movies and it's thesebeautiful worlds, artistically,

(48:12):
you know it's, it's beautiful,even if you don't enjoy the
stories that are being told.
You have to admit like the artthat goes into it is very
fantastic pieces of work.
But then you got artists likeJunji Ito, who is described as
being very bubbly and verypositive individual.

(48:34):
You know very bubblypersonality.
But then you look at his workand it's yeah, it's just like
bro, what, what are you on?

Speaker 2 (48:44):
like, like the first time I picked this up because it
caught my eye in a second incharles, I was like what the
hell is happening?

Speaker 1 (48:51):
yeah because I didn't know anything about about him
previously.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
I just it just caught my eye because of the art style
.
I was like oh God, what iswhat's happening?
So I had to buy it.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
Yeah, no, I don't blame you one bit, because I
actually have a nice collectionof Jinji Ito too and I love art
books.
I like collecting art books andI have his Twisted Vision art
book and, yeah, it's, it's verysick and twisted, for sure.
But then you read about the guyand it's just like I feel like

(49:25):
these two creators should likeswitch.
You know like Miyazaki shouldbe creating the dark and twisted
stuff and and Ito should becreating the Ghibli, but I don't
know, it's, it's, it's weird.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
It's, it's funny how that can, that can work out and
that's not.
I don't even think that'snecessarily just a like a
director or artist thing, like Isee you see stand-up comics
that are that way, you seeactors and actresses that are
that way.
So it's always an interestingcontradiction when it comes to

(49:59):
those people.
I think what I have discovered,and as we have watched more
films because you just mentionedthe Boy and the Beast, which is
one that is on our list I thinkI've just discovered that I'm
more so of a Satoshi Kon Hosadaand even though it's been a
little bit of a hit or miss likeMakoto Shinkai type of person
when it comes to storytelling.

(50:20):
But one thing that never failsfor Ghibli fans is everyone
always has one to recommend tome to try out.
So I have a list to choose from, but I'm sick of disappointing
people, so we'll see whathappens in the next one.
Yeah, it's, uh, it's tougharound here.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
So when watching anime phil, what is it you
usually prefer?
Are you like classic shonen,like you want action fast?

Speaker 2 (50:51):
yeah, I'm pretty I'm definitely the more casual of
the anime fans between eric andI, but, yeah, those type of
stories and what I'll do.
I'm also a binge anime watcher,so I will not watch anime for
three or four months and thenfor a month it's all I'll watch.
So I'll I go through phases.
But I also game quite a bit andbecause that's my, that's my

(51:15):
like piece, like when I,wherever I'm off, work and I'm
not working on podcast stuff oryeah or uh, or voiceover stuff,
that's where I can relax andjust focus on a game, whatever
it may be, and then I'll throwon a podcast.
So I fall behind on quite a bit.
Like they're obviously a bunchof shows I also want to watch.
You know a bunch of movies.
I actually re-watched BreakingBad during the pandemic, I

(51:38):
believe, and yeah, I mean that'sa great, a great choice to go
through for the first time.
I remember that whole era oftelevision was pretty crazy.
You know, yeah, dexter, when itwas still good.
There were a couple of othershows.
What was, what were?
Oh, the walking dead got off toa fast start and then talk

(52:00):
about consequences.
That show has like too manyconsequences, like they like
overdid it on consequences mybrother was really into the
walking dead uh series.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
However, I was kind of in this uh, in this period of
like hating on anything zombie,vampire, werewolves because at
one point I feel like it wasjust everywhere.
Everybody was doing vampirestories, everybody was doing
zombies.

(52:32):
I actually really enjoyed whatwas that net I'm not sure if
it's netflix, but it was azombie show that I feel like
kind of parodied the walkingdead uh uh z nation.
I actually really enjoyed znation because I feel like it
was.
It was creative, but you know,it was just when everybody else

(52:55):
was doing zombie stuff.
They did a zombie show thatkind of was really goofy and
silly but still had a fairlydecent story you could follow
and stuff.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
My thing with zombies is like it can still be
interesting, but after you seesomething like a train to Busan
28 days later, how can youreally improve upon those two
things?
For zombies it just doesn'tseem possible.
We're seeing kind of likedemons and vampires come back

(53:28):
around.
Sinners obviously is excellent.
I don't know if you've gottento see that yet.
It's on Max.
I just joined Max the other day.
Also, we actually are coveringk-pop demon hunters this month
for our international featureepisode and it is outstanding.
So definitely take the time toto check that out so you can
familiarize yourself with thattiger.

(53:48):
And then also what everyoneelse is talking about, because
it is it's outstanding andeveryone's talking about it for
for a reason.
But, um, yeah, yeah, it wasactually my girlfriend's
daughter that is, uh, countingus to watch it so uh well, we'll
have to watch it here prettysoon it's it's, uh, it's so good
, but, yeah, there, the goodthing is it's like a catch-22,

(54:11):
because there's so much to catchup on but there's also too much
to catch up on, so you have tolike, pick and choose.
Like I know, everyone's beentalking about the final season
of of squid game.
Eric, are you gonna watch that?
I?
I was just okay with whereseason one ended, so I have no
desire to watch.

Speaker 3 (54:26):
Yeah, like the other two it's been hard to pick up
season two and now, now I'mbehind to season three.
It's just one of those thingswhere, like, if you don't pick
it up, it just kind of falls tothe wayside.
Unfortunately.
That, that is it.
Considering that Squid Game,season one is like a fantastic
season of television.
So good, thumbs up it'sincredible.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
Yeah, actually, speaking of like missing the
boat on certain shows, Iremember the hype that
surrounded Squid Game season oneand I didn't watch it until
like almost a year later andwhen I finally did, I was, I was
pretty blown away.
But I feel like south korea isgonna be the location of the

(55:10):
next hollywood, just because,like, a lot of the stuff they're
doing is phenomenal.
And, yeah, I'm pretty excitedto finally watch season two and
season three of Squid Games, butI'm with you, eric, I still
haven't watched the secondseason or third season either it

(55:30):
just gets away from you.
Yeah, it really does.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
Yeah, so well, obviously, a lot of inspirations
and a lot of things that youhave as far as just pop culture
wise, you know that we could, wecould, get into that.
We haven't watched, that, wewant to watch and all of that.
So, eric, what other questionsdid you have for Victor before
we get into our game here thisthis evening that I have crafted

(55:57):
for us to play?

Speaker 3 (55:59):
Yeah, yeah, victor.
You know this episode is goingto come out at the end of July
and you know we're still in themid-New Year period.
What's one goal of yours thatyou have by the end of the year
that you would hope toaccomplish?
Maybe it's insights.
Maybe it's a fever dream.
It could be anything really.
What is something that you'retrying to accomplish?
Maybe it's insights.
Maybe it's a fever dream.
It could be anything really.
What is something that you'retrying to accomplish with the

(56:21):
rest of 2025 ahead of you?

Speaker 1 (56:24):
Well, like I stated, my team just stepped away from
the Nom Nomverse project, so Adream goal of mine right now is
just to keep that dream alive.
I understand that indie TCGsare dime a dozen and stuff, so
I'd very much like to keep NomNom Verse going, and I am in

(56:51):
conversations with a couplepublishers that are interested
and see the potential of Nom Nom.
My main goal, though, is notonly to keep Nom Nom Verse going
, but to keep the world of NomNom and the IP itself going.
I'm by no means a game designerI designed a game but I

(57:12):
consider myself a world builder,so I'm very excited to pretty
much get back to what I'm goodat, which is drawing and writing
, so very soon.
I'm actually in the process offulfilling the rest of
Kickstarter.
I have a few things left tosend out, which, over the last

(57:35):
few weeks, that's what I've beenworking on.
So, once I get all the packagessent out and stuff, my plate is
looking pretty clean at thatpoint, and I'm excited to just
flesh out the world and startworking on storyboarding the
story.
When you have somebody likeBryce Papenbrook attached to the

(57:57):
project, you definitely don'twant to drop the ball.
So I kind of want to, and a lotof the fans of Nom Nom really
very much like the lore that wehave already given people, so I
want to flesh that out.
That's kind of my dream.

(58:17):
My goal is to really really digmy heels in deep and start
fleshing out the world and thelore and the story of the world
of Nom Nom.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
Yeah, we talked.
You know we spoke his praisesearlier.
But you know because we'vegotten to work with Bryce a
couple of times as well, throughBold, as well as Ocala Comic
Con, as well as Brick City AnimeFestival, and one thing I will
definitely say about Bryce isanybody that stands in line and
waits to talk to him, everybodywalks away with a unique
experience.

(58:47):
He doesn't half-ass anything.
He totally understands theimportance and the significance
of somebody, of like somebodymeeting that person that they
associate with that characterfor the first time.
We've made sure to talk to himabout that and acknowledge that

(59:09):
he does a great job.
So I remember you talking abouthow you got to do a panel with
him at Spookala and I was like,oh yeah, you know, too bad,
bryce is super low-key and quietso there must not have been
much going on.
But yeah, he's a lot of fun and, honestly, whenever we have a
panel with Bryce, eric, it runsitself.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
So we can just sit there.
No, honestly, when I first metBryce, I was still working with
MetaZoo and I was at IndianaPopCon and I took a handful of
like MetaZoo packs and stuff andI just walked around and passed
out packs to people and it wastowards the end of the day where

(59:49):
none of the voice actors hadlines anymore you know the
convention was wrapping up forthe day had lines anymore.
You know the the convention waswrapping up for the day and I
saw an opportunity to gointroduce myself to Bryce and it
was funny because about a yearor two after his event manager
his name's Jeremy.

(01:00:09):
You guys may have met him, butJeremy is a mutual friend of me
and Bryce's and I had no ideathat I knew Jeremy like worked
with voice actors and actors andstuff and managed events for
them.
But he hits me up.
He was in Minnesota, for Ican't remember which anime

(01:00:34):
convention it was here inMinnesota.
But Jeremy hits me up and he'slike, hey, by any chance, do you
have a Taylor or Gibsonacoustic guitar that I can
borrow?
And for you know, all you musicaficionados, those are
expensive guitars.
So it's just like, let me check.

(01:00:55):
Really wanted to help Jeremyout and I reached out to a buddy
of mine who had a Taylor and Iwas like dude, can I borrow it?
And if anything happens to itI'll replace it.
He lets me borrow it.
Shout out to TomTom for lettingme borrow that guitar.
But I go to meet up with Jeremyand it was actually St Paddy's

(01:01:17):
Day and he's hanging out in therestaurant that's attached to
the, the hotel they were stayingat, and I walk in and he just
happens to be sitting there withBryce and I was just like, oh
shoot, this is, this is cool,because the first time meeting
Bryce, it was great.
Like in what you were saying,phil, about, he gives every

(01:01:40):
single person standing in thatline the time of day and I think
when I first saw him in actionI actually took notes from his
book, like as an artist, uh, formetazoo and stuff.
We had lines of people thatwanted us to sign their cards
and stuff and I did my best totry to emulate his energy

(01:02:05):
because you know people standingin line for five hours of the
convention.
You know there's a millionthings at conventions that
people can be enjoying butpeople choose to stand in line
to to meet you and stuff andBryce does an amazing job of
making people make it worth itworth their while to stand in

(01:02:26):
line to meet him.
So, anyway, where I'm at thisbar and he's with Bryce and I
walk up and one of the coolestmoments up to that point was
like Bryce remembered me fromIndiana PopCon.
He sees thousands of faces aweek, so for him to remember me

(01:02:47):
was just like this is awesome,you know.
And skip ahead, three hourslater Bryce had bought me a beer
.
It was St Paddy's Day and it'sjust like this is crazy, aaron
Yeager's buying me a beer.
Man, like this is nuts.
And so three hours later, youknow, I had a moment to kind of

(01:03:08):
sit down with Jeremy and Bryceand chat with them and I got to
talk to Bryce about Nom, nom andit was awesome because Bryce
thought the project was reallycool and it's just like, well, I
happen to have this characterand no lie, when I picture Ralph

(01:03:30):
with a voice, it was alwayswith Bryce's voice and you know
I tell him about this characterand stuff and he and pretty much
he was like, yeah, I'm down tohelp out with this project any
way I can and I would love to dothe voice of this character and
yeah, um, I forget why Istarted telling the story, but,

(01:03:52):
yeah, big shout out to Bryce.
Bryce is awesome, amazingperson and if any of you guys
get the opportunity to meet him,he will, you know, make your
day.

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
Yeah, 100% so.
But yeah, all of that, victoris is so great.
We thank you so much for forsharing that.
And again, we could you knowthere there are so many
different ways we could bringthis conversation um, but, uh,
you know, in the interest oftime, what we'll do is we'll I
apologize oh, no, no, no, you'retotally fine, but, eric, if

(01:04:27):
there's uh, not anything else, Ithink we are ready for the game
, which, again, I think will besuper, uh educational for all of
us, because I certainly learneda lot putting this together.

Speaker 3 (01:04:39):
Okay, I'm looking forward to it.
You're doing it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
You're hosting this I got it.
I got it.
So, for those of you that arelistening, I will do my best to
describe what is happening onthe screen, but you may want to
head on over to our YouTube pageso you can see the examples
that I will be sharing heretoday.
So this is a very simple game,Victor and Eric, of what costs
more, and pretty much there willbe.

(01:05:02):
Oh, actually, I don't know whyI'm struggling here.
I have rules on the next page.
So what costs more is the nameof the game.
So here are the rules.
So there'll be seven rounds, noties, just bragging rights.
Every slide will give you a TCGcard and a random item.
All you have to do decide whichone costs more, Get it right,
earn a point.
Most points at the end wins.

(01:05:25):
So are you guys ready to playwhat costs more?
Any?

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
questions.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Done game.
Let's do it Again.
This is going to be eye isgoing to be eye opening for
everybody involved.
So round one what costs more?
This 1993, magic, the Gathering, mtg, alpha, siobhan Dragon or
a 2025 Toyota I misspelledToyota or a 2025 Toyota RAV4.

(01:05:58):
Victor, you are our guest.
I'll let you guess first whichone costs more.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
All right, so it's a 9.5.
Beckett, that would mean it isthe.
Alpha set it is the alpha set.
I'm not even sure how muchToyota RAVs, but Toyotas do go

(01:06:27):
for quite a bit.
However, I'm it's crazy howmuch cards can go for.
They can go for literallyhundreds of thousands of dollars
.
I would say a toyota rav goesfor anywhere in between 30 to 60
000.

(01:06:47):
I'm gonna go ahead and put mymoney on the magic the gathering
card.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Okay, eric what do you think?

Speaker 3 (01:06:53):
You know what?
2025 cars, though, areexpensive.
I mean, it's a brand new car.
I'm going to go with the RAVfor old times, Phil Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
Yeah, honestly, people will ask like what's your
dream car?
I just want another RAV.
The RAV was my first car and Iwould love to have that they're
fantastic Caused a lot oftrouble in high school in that
car.
The answer is the MagicGathering card, sold for $44,400

(01:07:25):
at Fanatics Collect.
The starting MSRP for a ToyotaRAV4 is $25,850.
So there you go, all right.
Point goes to Victor Round two.
Which costs more?
This 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinsonrookie card or this 2012 Marquis
500 Sport speedboat?

(01:07:46):
Which one of these costs more?
Victor, you got the last oneright, so you'll get to go first
.
We have a 1984 Jackie Robinsonrookie card or a mini yacht.
For those of you that are justlistening, which one of these
cost?

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
more.
Uh, I gotta put my money on thejackie robinson rookie card.

Speaker 3 (01:08:05):
Okay eric yeah, I'm also gonna go the jackie
robinson card here all right,both you go with jackie robinson
the.

Speaker 2 (01:08:14):
The Jackie Robinson card sold for $336,000 at
Heritage Auctions in 2018.
This boat is listed for$299,000 on SI Yachts, which is
a website I never thought I'dvisit in my lifetime.
So if you want to know, ifyou're in the market for a boat,
you can get it for less thanthis Jackie Robinson PSA 9 card.

(01:08:34):
So there you go, which is justcrazy.
These numbers are going to getwilder, guys.
I'm just going to tell youright now.
Eric is on the board, victortakes another one.
So two to one.
Let's go to round three.
We have a Beckett 10 ElsaSpirit of Winter Enchanted
Lorkana card, or One Night atthe Ty Warner Penthouse at the

(01:08:59):
Four Seasons.
There's another Four Seasons inNew York City which costs more.
Eric, I'll let you go first,since you got one right here the
last time.
So we have a Elsa Spirit ofWinter Enchanted Lorcanicard or
One Night at the Ty WarnerPenthouse at the four seasons in
New York city.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
And that spelling is atrocious you gotta you're
supposed to act like a realprofessional.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
Four seasons.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
In New.

Speaker 2 (01:09:25):
York, oh God, okay, listen, a lot happened here.
I was off.
I was also working my day job,so I was working.
No, no, they're not going tolisten.
So, I was working.
No, no, it's fine.

Speaker 3 (01:09:35):
I think there's too many typos in there, so it's
gotta be a trick.
So I'm going to go one night inthe Ty Warner penthouse, I
think.
I think it's that one.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
Victor, what do you think?

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
Yeah, uh.
I know there's some more Connorcards that can go for quite a
bit of money, but it is still arelatively new card game.
And that is the four seasons innew york city and it's the new
york.
I got it.
I'm also going for the onenight in the penthouse, okay all

(01:10:05):
right.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
The elsa and lorcona card sold for 45 000 on ebay in
2023.
The ty warner penthouse startsat sixty thousand dollars a
night.
So it is the.
And look at, this isn't even agood view.
I tried to.
This is the best picture Icould find of this penthouse,
and this was the best one.
I was like this is it.
I'm like that just doesn't seemlike it's worth it.

(01:10:29):
So, all right, both of you geta point there.
So, uh, three for three.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
I'm not the biggest Frozen fan, so I don't think
either are really worth it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
You and Eric are kindred spirits.
In that one, I will say.
The value of this card has gonesignificantly down.
So this, I think, is now worthabout $8,000.
But at the time it sold for$45,000 on eBay.
So, Eric, maybe when we go toNew York Comic Con one day we
can stay at the Ty Warnerpenthouse.
Maybe, All right.

(01:11:00):
So two out of three for Eric,three for three for Victor.
Let's go to round four, Allright?
This Michael Jordan 1986, 1987Fleer rookie card or ringside
tickets to Floyd Mayweatherversus Conor McGregor in 2017.
Victor, I'll let you go first.
We have a PSA 10 rookie MichaelJordan card or ringside tickets

(01:11:22):
to Floyd Mayweather versusConor McGregor in 2017.
Which of these do you thinkcost more?

Speaker 1 (01:11:28):
I do remember seeing articles about that fight and
how expensive they were umringside tickets?

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
I don't think yeah, I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:11:43):
I I gotta go with the michael jordan rookie card.
However, I do think this iswhere I take my first, because I
I think I remember seeingsomething for like a million to
$5 million for the ringsidetickets for that fight or
something like that, but this is.
Michael Jordan we're talkingabout, so.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
Eric, what do you think?

Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
Yeah, I mean I want to lean towards Michael Jordan,
but I but also I did hear thesame story about Mayweather
McGregor, so I'm going to goringside tickets here.

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
Alright, here we go.
The Michael Jordan card soldfor $150,000 through Robert
Edwards Auctions.
Third party websites wereselling tickets for this fight
starting at $157,700.
So there you go.
It was close.
It was close.
I think I'd rather have therookie card, based on how that
fight went, but it's, that's how.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
I actually called that fight to a T.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
Yeah, it was.
No, that was the time.
But it was a lot moreentertaining than it had any
right to be for sure, yeah, yeah, especially based on
Mayweather's fighting style.
Like I did not expect him to bethat aggressive, so well,
boxing fighters have to go a lotlonger.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
Well, not a lot longer, but an mma fighter when
you're fighting, minutes feellike hours right.
And I, I knew connor was justgonna drain himself so there you
go.

Speaker 2 (01:13:11):
We are all tied up at three apiece heading into round
five.
We got a competitive matchupgoing here.
Let's go to round five.
We have this 1998 pokemonjapanese promo.
Okay, why didn't the pictureload in?
Hopefully it will load in thenext, uh, the next slide.
1998 pokemon japanese greatpromo.

(01:13:32):
Illustrator hollow coro corocomics card or a five bed, five
bedroom, six bath, 5 421 footsquare foot home in los angeles,
california.
I'll bring up the house here toshare in a moment.
Eric, I'll let you go first.

Speaker 3 (01:13:49):
You got the last one right yeah, I can see it through
canvas.
That that works out.
Uh, I got a visual, okay, sowhile you're getting the visual,
up.

Speaker 2 (01:13:57):
I'll show it that way .
Victor can see it too.

Speaker 3 (01:13:59):
I'll bring it up here in a second, this one is tough
because I definitely think thatthat Pokemon card is probably it
.
I mean a house in Los Angelesand, you know, still standing

(01:14:20):
post-fire too, Probably veryexpensive.
I'm going to go.
I'm going to go Pokemon cardhere.

Speaker 2 (01:14:30):
Okay, I'm going to pull up this picture so you can
see it here.
Victor, give me just a second.
I just have to make sure I pullup the picture so it doesn't
spoil how much this house costs.
Hold on, okay, I think I got it.
Give me a second here.

Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
I don't even think I need to see the picture, no,
okay.

Speaker 2 (01:14:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:14:49):
I'm going to.
Yeah, that's really nice.

Speaker 2 (01:14:53):
I'm going to go with the home Going to really nice.
I'm gonna go with the home,gonna go with the house.
Okay, yeah, give me a secondhere.
Let me pre-share this lots ofmoving parts.
We're live, it's.
It's how it goes, all right,okay, the pokemon card sold for
five million two hundred andseventy five thousand dollars in
a private sale in 2021 to apiece of shit youtuber we won't
mention here, and the home islisted for four million one

(01:15:17):
hundred and ninety five thousanddollars on zillow.
So there you go, pokemon card.
This is the highest sale aswell for, uh, for a pokemon card
, um, or a mansion, essentiallyin los angeles.
So you choose.
But eric takes the lead four tothree, heading into the next
round.
I think I also didn't mess.

(01:15:37):
This thing is a mess.
It's fine.
I think I got my rounds messedup as well.
I was under a lot of pressure.
It's okay.

Speaker 3 (01:15:43):
Next, next one, never letting you do a game again.

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
No, it's fine, all right.
And the next one.
We have a 2020, uh opticdowntown gold vinyl Joe burrow
card, a 7.5 beckett, or a tripto the titanic on ocean gate,
which one of these cost more.
Victor, I'll let you go firstthis uh 7.5 joe burrow card.
2020 joe burrow, don russ optic.

(01:16:09):
Or a trip to the titanic withGate, which one cost more.

Speaker 1 (01:16:17):
I'll go with the Ocean Gate trip to the Titanic.

Speaker 2 (01:16:21):
All right, Eric, what do you think?

Speaker 3 (01:16:23):
Yeah, I have a feeling like a bunch of
millionaires went on that butalso like Millionaires are.

Speaker 1 (01:16:29):
Didn't they not come back?
They did not.

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
Yeah, millionaires are also buying cards, so
One-way trip you know what.

Speaker 3 (01:16:37):
Let's?
Let's keep it.
Uh, let's keep it.
Mixed up here.
I'm gonna take a chance on thejoe burrow.
It's the gold vinyl that'ssticking out to me.
I feel like there's somethingspecial there.
I know absolutely nothing.
Adding the tiger in.

Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
Adding the bengal tiger in is a very interesting
touch yeah interesting card,yeah, for sure.
So uh next.
And so the the Joe Burrow cardsold for one hundred eighty
hundred eight thousand dollarsvia Golden Auctions in 2022.
Ocean Gate was charging twohundred and fifty thousand
dollars a person per person perperson.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
When it all couldn't get a group rate and done Nope.
It's all good.

Speaker 2 (01:17:11):
I've seen the movie I was going to.
Yeah, there are a lot of OceanGate documentaries coming out
right now, so they're very, veryinteresting.
So, all right, we are all tiedat four apiece, heading into, I
believe, the final one.
These rounds are off, so Ithink this is the last one.
All right, one more round.
Here we have the 2023 Magic theGathering, the one ring tales

(01:17:37):
of middle earth card, one of onepsa nine.
Or brawny james 2025, 2026, losangeles lakers salary.
Which one of these things costsmore?
I think there is actually twomore or one more after this, so
which one costs more?
Uh, victor, I'll let you gofirst.
2023 magic gathering, one ofone.
The one ring tales of middleearth card psa 9 better be that,

(01:18:00):
or bronnie james, better be 26salary with the los angeles
lakers.
Are you going with?

Speaker 1 (01:18:07):
the magic.
Yeah, I, I believe.
Post malone Malone bought thatcard for $2 million or shy of $2
million, and this is BronnyJames.

Speaker 2 (01:18:23):
Second round pick.
You know, yeah, yeah, nbasalaries are high though.

Speaker 1 (01:18:35):
Yeah, they are, and this is his upcoming salary and
I don't think he did anything inthe previous season to warrant
a high salary.
But it is Bronny James so it'sall scaled.

Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
So so it's all preset .

Speaker 1 (01:18:57):
I gotta go with the Magic card.

Speaker 2 (01:18:59):
Okay, eric, what do you think?

Speaker 3 (01:19:01):
Honestly, I'm okay going Bronny salary here Again.
I think it's gonna be closerthan we think.

Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
It's a little nepotism as well.

Speaker 3 (01:19:09):
No, you know, LeBron got a couple bonuses in there.

Speaker 2 (01:19:14):
Alright, the Magic of the the gathering card did sell
to post malone for two milliondollars in 2023 and bronnie
james will make 1 million 955377 dollars on his second year
of his rookie contract.
So it is close.

Speaker 1 (01:19:28):
But the post malone, uh, the magic the gathering card
I wish I could make that muchmoney sitting on a bench yeah,
yeah right.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
Or playing in the G League and just having some fun,
so, and then getting to live atthe James Mansion, so it would
be pretty nice, so all right.
So I think we should have onemore here.
Perfect, all right.
Round seven this is the finalround.
We have a 2002 Yu-Gi-Oh BlueEyes, white Dragon first edition
, psa 10, so mint.

(01:19:56):
Or Seven Nights at the ViaOdaia in Cannes, france I assume
it's pronounced Cannes becausethere's the Cannes Film Festival
.
So which one of these costsmore, eric?
I'll let you go first.
We have a 2002 Blue Eyes, whiteDragon first edition card.
Or Seven Nights at this verynice Airbnb in France.

(01:20:18):
Which one do you think costsmore?

Speaker 3 (01:20:20):
Listen, the one thing I know about going anywhere
overseas is that it's cheap ashell compared to where we live.
So I'm going to go blue eyes,white dragon here comfortably.

Speaker 2 (01:20:31):
Okay, victor, what do you think?

Speaker 1 (01:20:33):
Very good point, eric .
Okay, victor, what do you think?
Very good point, eric.
However, I do know, out of allthe tcgs, yugioh usually doesn't
hit as high as numbers, asmagic and pokemon do, and I felt
pretty comfortable choosing theseven knights at this place

(01:20:54):
until you said that, eric, andthen I was just like oh but, we
are talking about it is a week.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
You know so.

Speaker 1 (01:21:05):
I'm up by two.
Right One.
I'm up by one.
Do we have a sudden death?

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
No, this is all the marbles, so wait, we could tie
and it's just a tie, so we couldtie.
I was wrong in the rules, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:21:20):
I'll just go with the Seven Knights, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:21:24):
All right, here we go .
The Blue Eyes White Dragon soldfor $43,200 at Heritage
Auctions in 2022.
And it's roughly $70, grand forseven nights at this Airbnb.
So when I found this Airbnbbare minimum.
You have to rent it for atleast a week, so that's why I
got seven nights there you go,in the south of France.

(01:21:45):
So there you go.
Or you can have this Blue EyesWhite Dragon card that sold back
in 2022.
So there you go.
Victor is victorious.

Speaker 3 (01:21:54):
Thank, you guys both for playing.

Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
Thank you guys, both for playing.
Other than the typos, that wentpretty well.

Speaker 3 (01:22:01):
Yeah, and the missing picture and the broken rules,
it's just crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:22:07):
Okay, well, the picture is not my fault.
The picture is not my fault,that's a Canva.
It's a Canva problem becauseit's in the upload, so that's
not my fault.
But, yeah, just crazy how muchsome of these cards go for and
what you could buy instead.
So I thought that was a fungame.
But, victor, thanks so much forplaying and congratulations on
your victory, and we thank youfor joining us here and what has

(01:22:31):
been a really, really funconversation.
You did allude to it.
As far as wanting to come backfor a series on another episode,
we would love to have you ifyou enjoyed your time here.
So we appreciate you here thisevening.
So please, before you go, leteverybody know again where they
can find all your work, how theycan support Nom, Nom, where
you're going to be and anythingelse you want to let our
audience know before we wrap upfor the evening.

Speaker 1 (01:23:05):
Well, first off, uh, thanks for having me, guys.
This was uh very fun.
This is my very first uhpodcast, so, um, thank you for
inviting me and if you guys areany of you guys are trading card
game fans, please, uh, checkout nomnomverse.
Or, if you are interested injust uh supporting any level of
support would be nice.
But you can follow ourinstagram or social medias.
Uh, you can find us at world ofnomnom.
Our website is worldofnomnomcom.

(01:23:28):
If you are interested inpurchasing some boxes of the
game, currently, right now, thewebsite is being worked on.
The marketplace is down rightnow, so unfortunately you can't
buy any of this.
However, there are peopleselling boxes and cards on eBay,
so feel free to support some ofour online sellers.

(01:23:51):
Yeah, join our Discord, which,if you look us up on Instagram,
there is a link that takes youto the website, to our discord,
all our other social medias, andI'll hook these guys up with a
link as well to everything soyou guys can post it on your
YouTube channel or however youguys go about it.

(01:24:13):
And also, eric Phil,unfortunately I couldn't get
boxes to you guys for the stream, but I will be sending you guys
some boxes to open, sohopefully you guys enjoy and get
lucky on some rips as well.
But other than that, thanks fortuning in and please at least

(01:24:37):
follow us on Instagram.

Speaker 2 (01:24:39):
And you'll also be at Ocala Comic Con in the fall as
well, right, which is coming upin October.
So if you want to come seeVictor and Nom Nom in person, I
can tell you whenever you walkby the table, the booth, it was
always quite a few people there,so definitely looking forward
to seeing you.
So all all that will be in theshow notes of this episode so
you can find everything nom nomand victor related over there,

(01:25:01):
which is also where you can findeverything wait for a podcast
related on our link tree.
So make sure you follow us overon social media, the most
important ones being instagram,tiktok, our discord community,
and we are also streaming ontwitch quite a bit.
You can also support the show acouple of different ways.
You can head head on over toApple Podcasts, spotify, YouTube
, thumbs up, subscribe, fivestars, all of that stuff.

(01:25:22):
It goes a very, very long wayand we thank all of you that
have done that so far.
We are very, very appreciative.

Speaker 3 (01:25:29):
But if you find yourself maybe wanting to
support the show and get alittle extra, as well as getting
episodes early and someadditional perks, eric will let
you know how to do that beforewrapping us up yeah, so of
course, uh, all the free stuffvery much appreciated, but if
you want to go the extra mile tosupport the podcast and go
beyond, join our patreon, wherepatrons of the show are

(01:25:49):
supporting us monthly and, inexchange, getting behind the
scenes and early access toepisodes like this one, so shout
out to all of our patrons.
Briar t3, kato, vintagemacaroni cory from the world is
my burrito.
And nick casparo, the author ofthe vidalarium series.
We very much appreciate it andwe appreciate you for listening
to this episode of the wait fora podcast.

(01:26:10):
Please remember that we releasenew episodes every wednesday.
My name is Mr Eric Almighty,that is Philip Filipino and
Victor Larson, and we'll see younext time.
All you got to do is wait.

Speaker 2 (01:26:26):
This is the Wait For it Podcast.

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