February 9, 2025 • 51 mins
On this episode of Diecast Breakdown, we're thrilled to welcome Darryl Li, Director of Brand Management at Jada Toys. Join us as we dive into the world of diecast collecting, discussing everything from the history of Jada Toys, their collaboration with Sung Kang and Liberty Walk, to the exciting new major collaboration announced for Diecast Supercon! Plus, we explore the ethos behind Jada's iconic "Jada style" and their commitment to delivering premium diecast cars at unbeatable quality and price. Whether you're a JDM enthusiast or a Hollywood diecast collector, this episode is packed with insights you won't want to miss. Tune in for an in-depth look at how Jada Toys continues to set trends in the diecast space and what exciting new releases are on the horizon.
Follow Jada Toys here: https://www.instagram.com/jadatoys/?hl=en
🏁🏎️Help us collect 20,000 cars for kids in need. Learn more at https://www.drivendreams.org/
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🌐Diecast Media Network is:
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🛠️ Chuck: https://www.chuckellis.com
Follow Jada Toys here: https://www.instagram.com/jadatoys/?hl=en
🏁🏎️Help us collect 20,000 cars for kids in need. Learn more at https://www.drivendreams.org/
🚘🎥 Support Diecast Media Network, buy merch, and more!: http://diecastmedianetwork.com/
💰Save 15% on all orders from SK75 Works with code "DMN." https://www.sk75works.co.uk/
🎨 Get some amazing automotive art here: https://fireballtimgarage.art/
🌐Diecast Media Network is:
🚗 Mark Driven Dreams Org: @drivendreamsorg
🚙 David TWYCE Diecast: @twycediecast
🏎️ Phia Madd Visions: @maddvisions
💁♀️ Kimber: https://www.instagram.com/_kimberw/
🎨 Jepeg Designs - https://www.teepublic.com/user/jepegdesign
🛠️ Chuck: https://www.chuckellis.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So you know, when I finish and I say the
closing phrase, stay fresh cheese bags, we all pause for
just a second and then I hit stop and then
we're clear to go.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
So that's the that's the only uh short version. That's
the that's the very short. I'm getting better at it, Mark,
I'm trying. Yeah, all right, A Goldenburg, that's our guy,
right yep, Ja Goldenberger, executive produce a little patron?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Am I am?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I sending you the updated patrons?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
No, I usually do that, but well he's only been
a patron since January twelfth. Okay, so that's why I
haven't seen it, because I haven't checked in a little bit.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
All right, Jay.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Goldenburg, somebody's gonna win like little Golden Willy Wonka tickets
in the prize is a Jada prototype if I understood
that right?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Okay, It's like, you know, if you bring your sick,
Grandpa's gonna jump out of bed.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
You know, by the way, four what do you think
that beds smelled like there was four old.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
People in the bed all day. I don't like to
think about that too much. Yeah, I've never had Are
are we ready? Chuck? Because I'm gonna like go down
all the kind.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Of please please stop now. We want here all to
actually want to come.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Back on the show.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
All right, alrighty everybody, and three two.
Speaker 5 (01:27):
You're watching die Cast Breakdown with Chuck Ellis, David Johns,
and Mark mccontier. So sit back, scrap it and hang on.
(01:47):
The breakdown starts.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
No, well, the folks Chuck here in welcome to you
and die Cast Breakdown. We're so glad you're here. I'm
going to give a special welcome, of course, to our
executive producer level patrons that help make the show go,
including a brand new executive producer level patron, mister j Goldenberg. Welcome, sir.
He's been a follower for quite some time and is
(02:10):
joining us at the twenty dollars a month level. That
is impressive and we are very grateful for it. Along
with him, we are grateful for first and sixty fourth Customs,
Dane's Self Driven Dreams dot Org. Thank you, Mark, Jason,
mad Visions, Thank you, Pia, Mike Sponson Customs reviews through
Another Lens twice did Cast to thank you, David, and
of course Video Geek Productions, who has joined us from
(02:33):
the very beginning before this show was even a show.
And if you want to join the ranks, you can
visit diecast breakdown dot com where you can find merch
and social media links and of course driven Dreams dot
org are cause that Mark is running. We're joining with
him and folks around the world to raise twenty thousand
(02:53):
diecast cars for kids in need that is brand new
in packaged vehicles, as well as a brand, any brand,
maybe a specific brand. We'll get to that in a minute.
But you can donate them to anywhere around the world
that receives donated items for children in need. And then
we tally all those scores up and we add them
all together and we get a really nice big number.
(03:14):
And that's how we spread the joy of tiny cars
around the world. One car equals one.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
What Mark smile?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Thank you very much, And that was my co host,
Mark Baron said, Mark, how are you today?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I'm doing great, Chuck. Thank you for asking.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And I am joined also by my co host mister
David Johns of twice diecast. David, how are you good?
Speaker 4 (03:34):
How are you Chuck? I am fantastic. Thank you so
much for asking. It's so nice that you ask.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Mark talk about we are going to be talking about
tiny cars and we're counting down the days to our
appearance at Diecast super Con, where you canvide us wandering
the floor of the Las Vegas aharn is it ahern
Ahern Hotel. We will be checking people out, interviewing and
streaming from the event, So if you see us, be
sure to come by.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And say hi, lost, just ask if yeah, we need help.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
We probably do, We will probably need a lot of help.
But helping us tonight is a guest who will also
be at die Cast super Con.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
His name is Daryl Lee.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
He is the director of brand management for a little
organization you may have heard of called Jada. They shook
things up a bit in the late and he's with
a little die Cast brand or two that you may
have heard of, and there's still kicking button taking names
in the twenty twenties with some amazing Diecast cars. And
that's what we'll be talking about with Daryl today. Daryl,
(04:34):
thanks so much for joining us today on Diecast Breakdown.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
Absolutely, it's my pleasure. Thank you guys so much for
having me.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I'm excited, we are excited to have you here. We've
had Jada in our sites for quite a while, and
we are flattered that you've given us this time to
sit down and talk about stuff. So for those who
don't know, let's go back to the beginning and let's
talk about how Jada entered the tiny car world.
Speaker 6 (04:58):
Yeah, so Jada has found by a husband and wife,
so privately owned company really put its foot on the
map back in two thousand and four and onward with
a small brand. You guys might have heard of dub
City that really cemented our legacy and our push forward
into who we are today, but really just kind of
(05:19):
owning the vehicles with the big chrome wheels and the
spinners and really leaning into that, and so we've always
referred to that internally as Jadas style, and that's kind
of carried on with a lot of the castings that
you've seen up to this point. So that's kind of
where the nice glory days were and these days we've
really transformed ourselves to be a full fledged toy company.
(05:45):
So certainly vehicles is a very big component or aspect
to our business as we are here in twenty twenty five,
but we've also added action figures and we've also done
preschool radio control vehicles well, not only that within our
core IP, we've also grown our licensing portfolio, and so
(06:06):
we work with all the major entertainment studios out here
in LA that you can think of, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, Sony,
Marvel to name a few. So it's it's been quite
the journey and we're excited to see where it's going
to go.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And be on along with those brands some other ones
that I really loved. I loved Bad City Heat, Big
Time Customs, Big Time Muscle. Of course the For Sale Today, Yeah,
for Sales series is one of my favorites of all time.
I still pick those up.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Whenever I can find on it.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I do episode No.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
That was a great night.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
One, that was a great one. Battle Machines a classic,
especially if you're one of those people that plays Car
Wars or gas Lands. It's already made right out of
the box, Mad Max vehicles ready to rock and roll
across your wasteland.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Today as well, Yep, d Rods.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Just the list goes on and on, and even Chubb City,
which is kind of a precursor to a lot of
the tuned cars that are so popular these days. That's
so you end up you and our old Buddy Lou,
we're really tearing it up back then, you're still tearing
it up now. So what is it that you really
see besides the Jada style? Like, what is it that
(07:24):
you see that people come to Jada for most often?
When it comes to cars.
Speaker 6 (07:30):
Jada's core DNA is all about great price, quality and affordability. Right,
So you get you're talking on average, what we're known
for is the one twenty four scale, and so on
average you find that at retail for about fifteen dollars, right,
twenty dollars if there's a if there's a license, So
(07:51):
you're talking in that range. Now, for that price point,
you get something that we feel is incomparable to any
other thing that's on the shelf, because not only is
at a twenty four scale, but the quality, pain execution,
the interior details. You still get the opening doors, the hood,
the trunk, all that good stuff. It's just highly, highly collectible.
And we've stayed with that DNA through these times with
(08:16):
inflation and everything else going on. Right, we've stayed true
to who we are and we're not going to deviate
away from that. That's been a lot of the fan
feedback that we always hear in person, and so yeah,
I just feel like for everything that we can offer
in terms of those talking points previously, it's hard to
beat and people really really love that.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
So we'll be back with more Diecast Breakdown after this
word from our sponsors. Legendary Hollywood concept artist and designer
Fireball Tim Lawrence has created three exclusive pieces of automotive
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Get these and other brilliant designs printed on mugs and
(08:55):
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Speaker 7 (08:59):
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Subscribe to cast Heads for free and look for collaborations
(09:22):
with Diecastmedia Network at casteadsmagazine dot com.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
And nail back to Diecast Breakdown.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Could ask a question, Darryl, when I look at the
landscape back in the early two thousands, look at and
I'm going to talk specifically about die Cast.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
What about that.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Jada DNA said, let's do the custom car culture. Let's
give it its spotlight when not a lot of companies
were making it really mainstream in the toy in the
die cast world. You guys killed it. Chuck was talking
tongue in cheek with we said, a little toy company,
because you guys are based when it comes to trend
(10:06):
setting in the die cast space. So talk about maybe
the decision to go all in on the custom cars
and bringing that to the mainstream. And really, I mean that,
and all the movies that we're all enjoying, like the
past and furious, we're all learning about these cars that
we don't know about and now we can buy them
(10:28):
on a shelf. And that's because of Jata.
Speaker 6 (10:30):
For us, we pride ourselves on being trendsetters and always
looking for the next cool thing, right, And I think
that's also another strand of Jada Dna that hasn't changed
throughout these years, going back to the dub City days.
Back then, it was always looking for, like I said,
the next coolest thing, and at the time, putting spinners
(10:52):
on big chrome wheels and neon lights under the cars
and leaning into the fast and Furious vibes and things
like that was so outlandage. People had never seen that before,
and when you saw it in person, it was just like, wow,
this is this is really cool for a real vehicle
to have this this kind of stuff. And to your point,
(11:13):
there was nothing like that out on the collectible market yet,
and so we saw an opportunity and we jumped at
it and really just carved our name into this segment
with being identified as a cool die cast manufacturer. Right
and again, as we're looking to who we are today,
that hasn't necessarily changed these days, it just looks a
(11:34):
little bit different with how car culture is being represented.
Certainly we're seeing a bit of nostalgia and the retro
theme come back with like the Underglow and things like that,
and so we want to stay true to our heritage
and incorporate that into our die cast collectibles. But to
your point, also from the licensing aspect, with things like
(11:55):
Fast and Furious, which is honestly a cultural phenomenon, we
see that the audience that grew up with those movies
now are starting to have families of their own and
introducing their kids to the movies, and it's kind of
spurring this and driving this collectibility and desire to just
(12:17):
continue to grow this hobby and really get people into
the car scene just in general. And so the fact
that we're able to tap into not only that audience
but also say, hey, we also have this line of
vehicles that's a little bit more broad and also very
easily accessible, really encourages the new generation of collectors. So
(12:37):
that's that's what we're all about. That's what we love
and it makes it really really fun.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah, darl So I think one thing to piggyback off
that is something that I can appreciate over the years
and when going down Oneisland Target or Fred Meyers, I'm
the JDM guy of the group here, so yeah, yeah,
So I was gonna ask you that and I'll follow
up with what kind of cars you're into. But when
I was growing up, I went to hot important nights
(13:02):
and stuff like that, and that was back when it
was it was cool. It's kind of changed over the years,
of course, it's not as it's not the same as
it used to be. But when I go down the
aisle and I see like your guys' stuff, it's like
it really brings you back to those days, and there's
a lot of design and they're like flashy and they
got the deep dish wheels, the camber and stuff like that.
And that's exciting for me because that kind of brings
(13:23):
me back to those days of going to those events
and for me personally having some of those vehicles. So
I think the draw to this day for people is
how the feeling of the nostalgia like to see those cars.
I mean, of course you guys have it's not all
JDM by any means, but like the ones that when
I see like an FD with the deep dish wheels
(13:46):
and like the crazy paint job, I'm like picking it up.
And if I'm not buying it because I can't buy everything,
we want to buy everything, but at least like look
at it, appreciate it and say, eh, maybe I don't
have room for that right now. But it's really cool
to see that there's still a brand that's going really
strong all these years and it hasn't like changed anything up,
(14:07):
that's still going forward and trying to give people what
they want instead of just putting stuff out there. If
it doesn't do well, they get rid of it. They
get rid of it. There's a lot of other manufacturers
that do that. So I think personally, like as an
outside look, I think that's why you guys are doing
really well too, as you putting stuff out that people
really enjoy and artistic, and that's kind of wild, because
(14:29):
a lot of stuff can be kind of blaw and
it's always it's always wild what you guys are doing.
So appreciate that.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
For sure, No, and I appreciate you for sharing that.
Like listen, I am a JDM fanboy at heart. That's
that's just where I naturally leantwards. I actually came back
from Japan like a week ago attending Tokyo Auto Salan.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, we want to have the time monet to go.
Speaker 6 (14:52):
It was, Yeah, it was amazing, And so personally speaking,
I live and breathed JDM. A lot of my car
projects are centered rou on JDM and catch me at
all the local cars and coffee events and things like that.
I'm usually I'm usually always there, but I definitely have
love and respect to all makes and models. I think
that's just at the end of the day, when you're
(15:14):
a true car enthusiast, any sort of vehicle just kind
of gets you excited, right. So having said that, I
will say that the team at JATA very much like myself,
and so when we're creating these vehicles and identifying new brands,
regardless if it's an exotic, a Euro, JDM, domestic, or
(15:37):
a truck, we all live and breathe it, and I
think that really shows and translates to the final product.
So when we roll out the final product on shelf
and a collector is able to admire whatever it is.
For your example, like an FD with deep dish wheels,
well we're really critiquing that internally before it ever makes
(15:59):
it to the shelf. Maybe the fit is not correct,
maybe it can use it, yeah, yeah, a different tread
pattern on the tires, or we really want to make
sure that we nail the bodykit that's that's on the
car down to the paint execution. All of that stuff
gets critiqued heavily by by our internal team to ensure
that we're rolling out an A plus product. And actually,
(16:20):
one of the classifications that we have internally is like,
if we don't feel like this car could be taken
to a real car show, it's not as strong, it
doesn't it doesn't really vibe with us, and so maybe
we'll pull it back and revisit it at a at
a later time. Right, These are just some of the
inner workings and things that we take into consideration with control,
(16:41):
with all of our with all of our other brands
suit and to hear the feedback not only from yourself
but all the collectors alike, it's really rewarding.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's amazing. I think that one
of the last cars I bought at yours was the
R threety five. It was like a one twenty four
scale and it's blue. Yeah, the details on it were
I mean, I have an R thirty five and you're.
Speaker 6 (17:03):
Hitting on all the topics because I got an R
thirty five also, oh no. And so leaning into the
GTR thing or a JDM thing, I'm just a big
GTR guy mainly.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, yeah, And so.
Speaker 6 (17:17):
When it comes to JADA stuff like, I will generally
critique the GTR stuff a little bit more heavily, just
because you know, you're.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Running out to the garage and going yeah not quite yeah, yeah, proportion.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I was looking like yeah, right, yeah, So I was
looking at those and they look really good. And and
then I'm a big HACO guy, so I'm trying to.
I'm actually debating on selling my R thirty five because
I've had it for about seven years or so and
I've done everything I pretty much want to do to it,
and so I want a seventy one Haco and an
(17:50):
R thirty three GTR. I have one of my properties
that my that's my buddies, and he's he's ready to
get rid of it, and I'm like, hmmm, how much
you want for that thing?
Speaker 6 (17:58):
Opportunities opportunities.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, I'm a big Skyline guy to the day I die.
I mean it's probably when it comes to I love
all cars. I love muscle cars. I work on cars
all the time, and and uh I'll always pick a
JDM over. I mean it's just like you have a
sixty seven Chavelle and you have like a seventy one Skyline.
I'm just like Skyline, but I like the I love
the the US cars too, but they're just not as
(18:21):
cool to me.
Speaker 6 (18:22):
Yes, like I said, Jay, I'm the same way. I
got love and respect for all that stuff. I certainly
I certainly want. I have a big itch actually for
an old muscle car build. But yeah, I'll always go
back to I'll always go back to jaw that's cool and.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Always branch out. Yeah. I mean I've I've gotten the
itch many times on the US cars, the USDM stuff,
the old stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
But you know, guys, there was that one time somebody
took a Mustang and put it two j Z in it.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, I don't. That's just one of those
things that I just like, never like I feel off
about that. I don't. I like, don't know.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
I used to. I used to feel that way, but
now I'm starting to get into this state of mind
where it's.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
It's everything's okay, Like everything's like it's.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Not even that. I just think I can definitely respect
the a creativity and be the boss to be able
to do something like that.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
I get it.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
It's refreshing. It's refreshing, and I understand that that might
upset a lot of peers and things like that. But
in a day and age where I feel like everybody
is trying to stand out just a little bit, as
long as it keeps car culture alive, I'm all for it.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah. I mean I understand it too. I Mean I
had a eighty nine thirty two that I put a
two J in back before it was cool and I
was probably like the third one in the world to
do it.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
So I did.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
My buddy did a swap because he swaps. He's got
a shop called Jaz Powered Garage and he puts jay
Z's and everything. So and this was also before it
was a thing like he put jay Z's in Lovos
Three's like just jay Z the world and so he
put that in mine. And and it was so cleanly
done that I would pop the hood at shows and
people like, oh cool. And and this was probably I
(20:07):
don't know, like fifteen years ago, and uh and I'd
say take another look, like take another look, and then
they go, oh, no way, because it was they didn't
realize it was a two jay Z.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
But because I'm a diehard Toyota guy, but I'm also
a diehard Nissan guy.
Speaker 6 (20:22):
Both both great, Yeah, both great.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Both great. I think the jay Z it definitely has
a little bit more reliability factors to it because.
Speaker 6 (20:30):
But I will say, just the way it is, I
think RBS sound better.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
No, yeah they do. They don't sound like so yeah,
but yeah, I can understand.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
I I have it.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Pretty much everything I own besides my AR thirty five
is swapped. I swapped something else into it. But you
know that always carries it's gremlins that you have to
figure out once something's not working right, So.
Speaker 6 (20:52):
Always that's cool. But this is what I'm saying, right
like for us at Jada, like we live and breathe
this stuff, and we can talk about cars and projects
and swaps and things like that, like all right, and
so to be able to have that passion for vehicles
and how that translate to the collectibles no matter what
(21:14):
we're doing, that's just that's in a way, it's kind
of like a dream come true.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
So for sure, Yeah, it's a magical thing.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Yeah, don't touch the dial. Die Cast Breakdown will be
right back after these messages. Die Cast Breakdown is produced
in partnership with twice die Cast and Driven Dreams. Or
go YouTube, check out their channels in the video description,
and subscribe for more epic die cast content.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Hey, this is Larry wood Made. This is Derek from
Honest de Cant. This is Chad writing from Round two,
and this is Mike from gas Lams s rt JO
Vita Shows. Is Chimpion DJK.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
You're watching die Cast Breakdown.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
And now the thrilling conclusion of this week's episode of
die Cast Breakdown.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
All right, Well, they do other stuff besides JDM.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
They do, and one of those things that I really
like is you guys do a lot of movie and
TV show related vehicles. Those are more my wheelhouse and
something that has. You've also gotten me to break a
very important rule in my collection, which my collection a
while years ago, I said, I'm only doing one sixty
(22:32):
four from here on out. I'm not doing anything bigger,
anything smaller. I had way too big a collection. I
downsized a lot. And then you guys came out with
that Nano series, and man, is that Nano series cool?
And you just the Fast and the Furious ones. I've
got all of those littles, the dioramas, the house, the shop,
(22:54):
the train, and then the back to the Future one
with the clock tower in the street and the little
Toyota pick up. Holy cow, those things are just the best.
And I even did a build of Doc Brown's van,
and I used a certain other brand's van that has
little opening doors in the back, and it was just
(23:16):
the Nano Back to the Future of Delarean is just
the right size to sit inside the back facing out,
so it's got the DeLorean in the back of it.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
That's so cool.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, And I just so was the what was the
story behind the Nano series and what scale exactly is that?
Is it a scale or is it just kind of
very How did that whole line come around?
Speaker 6 (23:38):
Well, first of all, you're not the first person to
say that we've gotten others to break a rule of
only collecting one particular scale. Seems like we've done a
pretty good job at convincing people to go outside of
the one sixty four scale, whether that's for a bigger
twenty four scale or even a even bigger eighteen scale.
But it's cool to hear that now we're talking about
(24:01):
the Nano scale. That's an interesting one that kind of
came about with the Fast and Furious license. First, it
was just kind of a an item that came to
life from a brainstorm with our good partners at Universal.
And then we had one video of Dom's house that
was the first one, which we called the Nano scene.
(24:23):
It came with the two iconic cars, right that video
went viral for a little bit on social media, and
we're like, hey, I think we have something here. Yeah, Like,
let's continue to build onto it. And so really, it
just evolved into something where as people that love movies
(24:45):
or pop culture in general being able to offer something
that just kind of freezes a moment in time, like
an iconic scene, we just thought that positioning was great.
And again, as as fans of cars and movies, pop
cold sure all of that stuff. Internally, we just kind
of geek out when we're internally talking about this idea, like, oh,
(25:06):
how cool would it be if we had this property
and we did this scene from the movie. Right, So
that's kind of how it came about. And regarding your
question to the scale, we've gotten that question quite a
bit and the answer is generally the same. We don't
really classify it as a scale other than a nanoscale.
(25:28):
That's just what we call it internally. Outwardly, we also
say that it's just a nanoscale to be able to
achieve something like that with a decent level of quality,
but also have it be able to roll back and forth. Sure,
just be a nice complementary display piece to the scene.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Sure. Well, and then you've got the other ones too,
like the Gijo ones and the Transformer ones, where of
course Optimus Prime is not going to be the same
scale because you're keeping it to a particular length. Like
Starscream is a much smaller scale because he's in a
fifteen Ego fighter jet. So those are those are all great.
I think they're fantastic. And again, you made me break
a very important rule, but I'm glad I did.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
And I love they are.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
They are very small that I that I do like
and I love I love that the I love that
the Oh, Mark, do you have one of the house ones?
Speaker 3 (26:20):
No?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
No, okay, I have the micro machines and stuff as
a kid.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, so that the house one comes with a little
dining table and a grill and little tiny chairs and
those things. Oh my gosh, you just like you breathe
the wrong way.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
They are.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
They are so small you gotta be very careful around them.
And I've got two kids, so I'm always like, all right,
we have all the chairs. Do they where they go?
Chairs went off to So I actually bought a second
one just in case I lose, because I was like,
I'm gonna lose. You got you gotta have it. You
gotta have a redundant set, yeah for sure. So but
those are those are great. So kudos to those. And
I mean, and you got back to the future and
(26:56):
fast and furious.
Speaker 6 (26:58):
G I Joe Armers Busters.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yeah, yeah, is there a Ghostbusters?
Speaker 6 (27:03):
One might be maybe you heard it.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
In here.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Speaking you're speaking my language. Now that's my costume every
year for Halloween as a Ghostbuster.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
I mean, the thing the thing with us, and we
get quite a lot of questions too, right, It's like, oh,
what's next, what's next? Well, the answer is generally the
same too, is like, because we've evolved into this giant
powerhouse of licensing deals with the studios out here, it's
like anything could be a possibility as long as it
(27:39):
makes sense, right, So.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (27:43):
Yeah, I mean if you look at like the range
of our Hollywood Rides line, for example, it has the
bulk of all our licenses that we work with, and
so to see it possibly appear in another range, like,
it's it's not out of the realm of possibilities.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
So kind of on that same line, I want to
talk about the Simbadiki transition in twenty nineteen, right, talk
about Yeah, we talk about the benefits of having this
really humongous, well established company come in and offer their
(28:20):
strength to an already solid brand like Jada toys. What
does that mean to a company like Jada in terms
of what you can do now?
Speaker 6 (28:31):
It has honestly been the perfect match since our acquisition
back in eighteen, there was no real other company that
we felt like was going to be the perfect fit.
With them being based out in Germany, certainly they have
the European UGA market down there that they have a
(28:51):
very very strong footing, and so they had desires to
want to expand into the US market. And so I'm
firm believer that timing is everything. And so at the
time when the opportunity popped up and the Symbidico Group
had interest, we were kind of looking at each other internally,
We're like, this makes perfect sense because we also, like
(29:14):
I've been mentioning so far, just this a vast portfolio
of licenses, and we already have our foot and door
with our great partners at Walmart and Target. Like it.
Just it was an easy transition for them to acquire
us and then just hit the ground running right now.
Through the acquisition itself, they have been great to work with,
(29:36):
and I think the biggest reason for that is because
Jada was privately owned family business, and the Symbidica Group
is very much a family business too, so a lot
of those family values of treating the team and really
want to maintain that carried through the acquisition. And so
(29:56):
for us at Jada, it's been wonderful. We remained fully autonomous.
We do what we do in terms of our expertise
with licensing and creating cool vehicles and and good product
So it's it's been great all around. And and to
your point of having such a big entity support you,
that makes everything a little bit easier, right, because now
(30:18):
when you're talking about like overall toy company, we are
now a full fledged global toy company, being able to
offer a variety of different things, right and strategically, being
able to lean on each other's strengths in different markets,
and even when it comes to a product development and
collaborating on future lines, which I'm sure you guys might
(30:38):
have heard of, like these are now possibilities that we're
that we're not there before. And so to be able
to find the synergy together and really amplify through each
other's networks, it's been wonderful, honestly. And then they're great
people that work with I There's not enough good things
to say about that team the collaboration with them has
(30:58):
been has been wonderful and hopefully for many many years
to come to go.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
No, I agree, and I when I look at the
Simbadicki website, it's really it's almost scarily wholesome. You look
at it in your life.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
That's the family, that's the family aspect.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Yeah, you get that whole vibe, and like, if they're
willing for that to be your first impression of this
big company, that's got to be really important to them.
And when we hear you talk, it does seem like
a perfect fit. We'll get into a little bit later,
but an amazing collaboration was just revealed for the upcoming
(31:35):
Diecast super Convention. We'll talk about that later, but I
want to put that out there now to make sure
that we do talk about it before we cut the interview.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Darrel, I wanted to ask you about I think I
believe it was twenty twenty four when you guys paired
up with sun Kang with the Liberty Walk partnership. Those
are a couple of my favorite things. Sun Kang's super
cool dude for you. For anyone that doesn't ring a ball,
that's Han Tokyo Drift and all the other movie he's
been a ton of them. Seems like a really down
to earth guide from what I've never met him, but
(32:04):
i'd like to. We would like to, Yeah, we'd like to.
We'd like to have at some time. Yeah. Yeah, So
tell us a little bit about that. And then Liberty Walk.
I mean, Liberty Walks is amazing and I recently was
watching I think Haggarty TV. A big fan of the
Haggarty channel, and they go through and show us everything
with Liberty Walk. The forty that they built, that's nuts,
(32:28):
all the other skylines that they have. Yeah, it's just
I gotta go there. And then they have their old building,
they have their new building, and it's the same story.
I think you can probably relate to them because they're
like they're just they're going outside the lines with stuff.
They're they're not They're they're ticking off Ferrari. Ferrari's probably
got a ceason assistant letter like really quickly who knows. Yeah,
(32:50):
but they don't care. They'll take anything Ferrari, Lamborghini, Like
I think they had a Kutash that they're doing on
next or something like that. Lamborghini, so it's like it
doesn't matter what it is, they're gonna make it so
much cooler. So, yeah, just tell us how that came
about and maybe what's to come in the future if
(33:10):
you have any information on that.
Speaker 6 (33:11):
Absolutely, So it's a long winded story, but I'll try
and I'll try and make it brief. But there are
also two separate things. So with Sung, actually it it's
so great when everything that you mentioned about him is
absolutely factual. He's the most down earthed car guy that
(33:32):
I feel like you could ever meet. And the relationship
happened so organically, which is the best thing in my opinion. Certainly,
we're a big partner with Universal in the production of
all the Fast and Furious cars, and it just so
happened that he had a two forty Z that was
(33:55):
in one of the movies, which is Yeah, which we
had named dot Z right. It was a black and
red one. It had a ghosted koyfish and it made
a very very quick cameo appearance in one of the
Fast movies. And so we did it, and he got
wind of it and reached out to our team or
our marketing agency actually asking for a few samples, and
(34:18):
then we requested a meeting with him and just to
introduce ourselves and and things like that, and the relationship,
like I said, organically just kind of blossomed from that
point and we were like, we feel like this is
a match made in heaven. We should we should do
something together. It'd be really really cool. And so we've
always had an ambition to want to work with him
not as some king the actor, but some king the
(34:40):
car enthusiast. Right, those are two very different things. And
so in getting to know him and talk with him
just about his love for all things automotive and the
way he talks about his cars, it's it's really refreshing
because I think from an average person's point of view,
you see this icon, right, this this actor, and you
(35:04):
kind of go into it with a somewhat of a
perception because he's a celebrity actor. Sure, But quite the contrary,
he's not like that. Very he's just very genuine and
that's my favorite thing about him. And so all that
to say, the relationship with him has been very organic
up to this point, which, like I said, is the
best thing. And he is our brand ambassador, so we
(35:26):
are going to be developing a line with him just
around him with his cars, his figure, things like that.
So more on that to be shared probably at Diecast
Super Continent in greater detail, but that'll be ready by
middle of this year. So I'm excited to I'm excited
to release that. So separate from that is now Liberty
(35:48):
Walk and that's an interesting component because we partnered with
them to build a modern interpretation of a Fast inferious car, right,
and so that's where we had the conversation with our
partners at Universal to continue to celebrate the global impact
that the Fast franchise has had specifically on car culture.
(36:09):
The conversation was pretty much like, hey, obviously what we
do in terms of the Diecast collectibles, we want to
continue to celebrate the Fast franchise, and because we're always
out at these grassroots events, why not let us have
our hand to do to build something with Jada's style, right,
going back to that term, and so that's kind of
how it came about. And so we reached out to
(36:29):
Liberty Walk and they were totally on board with that,
and so together we built a Liberty Walk silhouette GTR
that has the modern interpretation of the Silver Skyline from
two Fast THU furious that Paul Walker drove and so
that's the car that I roll out to all of
the local events and things like that, and it's always
(36:50):
fun to be able to bring that car out. Now,
we're also scaling our partnership with Liberty Walk, right, so
obviously we're going to be we have an official partnership together,
we're going to be replicating a bunch of Liberty Walk
cars into different die cast models, whether that's in twenty
four scale, thirty two scale, or even RC right. So
that's the scope of the partnership. And actually part of
(37:12):
the reason why I was at Tokyo Auto Salon was
a guest of Liberty Walk, so I had the opportunity
to be able to hang out with them at the show,
kind of see what the vibe is like, go visit
their offices out in Japan, which is insane by the way.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Yeah, I think it was with Larry Chen's video, I
think yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6 (37:33):
So to see that in person was super cool. And
it was at the end of Tokyo Auto Salon, so
all the cars were coming back, right, so the Ferrari
forty was back out there, and I was able to
see the thirty two Cairo Racer that they that's really cool.
But it's cool, man, because I think once you're in it,
you start meeting these people and you form these relationships,
(37:56):
and it's like you start to see who has a
hand and either helping to build a car or putting
an event together or doing the media stuff, and it
just becomes like this tight circle and it's just so
cool to see John Sabal, who's also a very good friend.
He helped design the Livery that's on our GTR and
he's also helped us design a few other die cast
(38:18):
vehicles in the past as well. But he had a
hand in developing the Lamborghini Mira wide body kit that
they also unveil that Tokyo Auto Salon, right.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So it's just I haven't even seen that yet.
Speaker 6 (38:30):
I don't think it's wild, and so it just comes
full circle where you're like, oh, you're working with them,
and now we're lefting with you, and then it's just
exactly So it's it's cool, and so we are very
excited to have Liberty Walk as one of our partners.
I think you're going to see a lot of cool
things from us starting this year, going into the next
(38:50):
two three years. The plan is to really grow out
that Liberty Walk portfolio. They are the one of the
biggest the Japanese tuning scene. And again to your point,
I I love the ambition and creativity to just push
the limit. Right, going back to our small conversation of
jay z or RB and a Mustang, right, like, who
(39:12):
has the idea to think to cut up a Ferrari
F forty?
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Like yeah, so as they just want to Yeah, they
want to make it.
Speaker 6 (39:20):
I love being able to push the boundaries of things
and do something that kind of goes against I don't know, tradition.
It's just refreshing to see. And again it might not
be everyone's taste, but I can't deny that it doesn't
look cool, so ye.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah, for sure. The thing that I like about watching
like basically like baby documentary about him is that he
was I think Larry Channel's driving his R thirty four
and it like the AC went out in it and
they just pulled it in and fixed it right there
at Liberty Walk, and he's like, Liberty Walks fixing my AC.
In mind, they just he just did it. You know,
they're in there and fix it.
Speaker 6 (40:00):
Also, the most down to earth people, for as big
as they are now in the automotive scene, like I
can't even there are no words to describe like the
hospitality that they showed, not only myself but some of
the others that were along on the trip. Understanding that
Tokyo Auto Salon is such a huge event for them,
(40:24):
they were just very, very kind every step of the way.
I think that just hope that all translates into the
final product where it's like, understandably you can see there's
a great connection. There's a great relationship there. Everything is
super organic and there's just a passion and love for
this kind of stuff. And then when you have everything
outside of that also be like a plus. It just
(40:48):
it affects the overall product and everything is a win.
So that's what makes it really exciting.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Sure that you guys have been doing great.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Well, we like these someone was hanging out.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
It's I like the ones where Mark comes out of
his shell some So that's uh, that's good.
Speaker 6 (41:05):
I can start talking about I can talk about cars
and things like that all day.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Sure, Sure, yeah, I start talking JDM and yeah the
light up.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
David and I are like over here going yes engines.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Yeah, yeah, Well I guess the last thing to touch
on with like sun King. The reason I like the
guy so much is like too, is because I've got
a buddy down in California that's got it insane amount
of like he's got the cleanest Z two forty z,
he's got a couple, he's got a hakoh, he's got
a five to ten, he's got multiple on cars. And
he told me that he Sun King reached out to
(41:38):
him because he liked his wheel fitment on his two
forty and they chatted on the phone for two hours.
So it's just like that's what, Yeah, just a regular dude,
and he's like, dude, just we just chatted him for
like a couple of hours about real fitments and what
I'm doing on this because he liked the way this
looked and he liked all my cars, and and that's
cool because I don't get I don't get hung up
(42:00):
on celebrities very off. I don't get starstruck. It's just
but I kind of do when they're when they're down
to earth people, like when they're just like talking and
just talking to anybody like they're just regular people and
just just chatting. That's when I have respect for doctors
and race car drivers and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 6 (42:18):
Absolutely, and and that's that's who he is. And I
and I've mentioned this to him a few times also.
I I'm the same way. I don't really get starstruck
at all. But there are moments where you're having a
conversation with him and you're just talking about cars, and
I have to pull myself back and I'm like, this
(42:39):
is really happening right now, Like this is like this
is actually really cool. But he's that kind of guy,
and he's very inquisitive and the way that he talks
about the projects or the cars that he has or anything.
Really I just use cars as the focal point because
obviously that's the basis of what we talk about primarily. Sure,
(43:00):
he can go into the greatest link and detail about
the engine set up and where it came from, who
made it, why we chose it, and everything in between.
Like everything in any of his cars, what he chooses
to do with him matters, and everything has a story
and if there's no reason for it, then it doesn't
(43:23):
matter and it shouldn't be on the car, right. So
very rarely do you find an enthusiast like that that
really can go into the into the greatest detail of
even like a little license plate bolt.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Everything is intentional.
Speaker 6 (43:39):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, and that's so refreshing to be around.
And it's also, quite honestly, just as a car guy,
very inspiring, very refreshing. And to that point, obviously, when
we're developing his car into the die Cast collectibles, we
want to be able to tell that story. We also
want to be able to share it and do the
(44:00):
actual model justice right. With as much attention to detail
that he puts into the real car, we want to
be able to do our part and capture all those
details within the die Cast model. Certainly, we're limited because
we only have so much of a size that we
can work with, but we want to make sure that
all the finer details are there as much as we can.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Awesome, and we've alluded to this a little bit, But
do you want to talk a little bit more about
die Cast super Con? What's coming up, what to expect,
What are some of the things that Jada is bringing
to this show that people should come out to see.
Speaker 6 (44:32):
Yeah, so we are returning to die Cast super Con
as the title sponsor, something that we're really excited about.
We're super excited to see a lot of our industry
friends out there and seeing all the new exciting things
that they're going to be bringing out for us, to
be able to see familiar faces of the event organizers
of the show, to see your guys in person, and
(44:54):
be able to have that live interaction, and just be
able to have FaceTime with the fan that are just
fans of Jada. I think that's the thing that we
always value the most, that's the most rewarding product wise.
I think people are going to see something really exciting,
something that we've never done as Jada. So alluding to
it a little bit earlier, we're going to be officially
(45:16):
showcasing our collaboration line with our parent company in Sebadiki
and their brand major at This brand will be called
the Collection Series, and everything about it is going to
be super super premium and very intentional.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
So it is.
Speaker 6 (45:33):
Tell me more, it is going to be a premium
line of one to sixty four scale vehicles. There's a
few golden nuggets that I'm going to withhold for now
that I will share at the at the event of
what makes this line extra special. Let's say there's certainly
a nice marketing strategy behind it. At that I think
(45:56):
a lot of die cast collectors and enthusiasts will appreciate.
But it's also our song to give back to the community,
right kind of mentioning it a little bit before. We
want to do justice to these vehicles and really have
it well represented. And as much as we want to
say we want to differentiate ourselves within the one sixty
(46:16):
four scale market and things like that, there's only so
much that you can do, so we just want to
make sure that we're representing the Jada brand name the
best that we can. While we enter this space with
the team at major At, it's going to be super
super exciting, and so not only will we be showcasing
the entire first wave, but we're also going to be
(46:37):
having a Diecast super Con exclusive. We're going to take
one of the cars in the first wave. It's going
to be a different color treatment, it'll have a bit
of a special packaging, and it'll be the first time
that people attending the show will be able to actually
not only see but purchase the first major At collection vehicle.
Speaker 4 (46:56):
There.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
It's amazt exciting stuff. Yeah, well, David, they even got
me hooked on major.
Speaker 6 (47:01):
Att so I look, they have quite a yeah, they do.
Like the history for people that are not as familiar,
I mean they go back back like nineteen sixties.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
Major. It was my first four way four a into
like the idea that other countries around the world were
making cool diecasts. I was like, wait, what has happened here?
And look, I want to I want to touch on
this there real quick, because you guys are doing a
special event at the super Con that the organizer, Steve Johnson,
has put together for the ladies, which is kind of cool.
(47:32):
There's like a wine and chocolate event you talked about.
You're holding the Golden nuggets for later for at the show,
but we are going to run with that theme because
at this event, fans and if you're going to the
super Con, I want you to listen. There's going to
be an event with chocolate and wine and some of
the boxes of chocolate might have a Golden ticket in
it and that would mean a prize probably going to
(47:55):
be a really cool Jada piece. As far as we
know up to now, it might change, but look for
It'll be cool. Okay, yeah, look for that. Look for
that in future posts here on Dotcast Media Network. I
just wanted to get that in before we wrap up.
I think it's really cool because you just talked about
that interaction with the community, and I love the fact
that you guys are part of an event for the
(48:16):
female collectors and the spouses, and we want everybody to
have a good time at the super Convention, and that's
just another way that it's going to happen.
Speaker 6 (48:26):
That's what it's all about. Like I said, anytime we
are able to have the opportunity to have FaceTime with
people that actually collect our stuff and our fans of
the brand, that's always the most rewarding thing for myself
and the team, honestly. And this year is going to
be extra special just because now although we were acquired
(48:47):
in twenty eighteen, this will be the full of the
first actual collaboration facing that we'll have as Jada and
major Ed together. And what makes it extra special is
that the major At team just announced their brand refresh
and so they have a new look, they have a
new feel, a new logo, and now we're launching a
(49:10):
new collaboration project with them. Yeah, it's just truly driving
home that synergy and for us to be able to
partner with them and represent them here in the us.
That's a great honor and certainly we're looking to do
the best that we can to represent them as well
as we can. And so, like I said earlier, it's
a match made in heaven, and I think this year's
(49:31):
super Con is going to be extra special for us
because of that, and we couldn't think of a much
better event to be Wil come out with that news
and showcase the new line and all that good stuff.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
It's gon'll be awesome, fantastic. Can't wait.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
All right, folks, well you heard it all here.
Speaker 4 (49:47):
Get out out to Vegas.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
If you can and see the four of us because
we'll be there and we're looking forward to seeing you
there as well.
Speaker 4 (49:54):
Well.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Darryl, again, I can't thank you enough for joining us.
We've been thrilled at the idea having Jada on, and
now we have. I usually ask people where you can
find them and follow them. Where to find Jada, Go
out there and.
Speaker 6 (50:08):
Toys JAA toys at a mass retail store.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Yeah, just go to any any major place where Finder
toys are sold and you're going to find that Jada name.
And yeah, they do a mighty mean smoky in the
Bandit trans am so.
Speaker 4 (50:24):
Check it out. It comes with the belt buckle. It's
pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
So alrighty well, thank you again Darryl, and thank you watchers,
listeners wherever you are bringing it to the end. If
you had another episode, if you want to leave a
little comment on the YouTube video and I has known
you made it to the end. We love the Shutdown
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(50:49):
If you're tired of looking at our faces, you can
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Speaker 4 (51:06):
If you're watching us on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
That is again shout out to those patrons that make
the show go and a shout out to you making
it to the end of another episode. And as always,
want to thank you for coming along with us for
the ride. So until next time, stay resh cheesebags.
Speaker 5 (51:21):
Thanks for listening to die Cast Breakdown. If you enjoy
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Die Cast Breakdown is a presentation of Flying Valiant and
(51:44):
the die Cast Media Network.
So you know, when I finish and I say the
closing phrase, stay fresh cheese bags, we all pause for
just a second and then I hit stop and then
we're clear to go.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
So that's the that's the only uh short version. That's
the that's the very short. I'm getting better at it, Mark,
I'm trying. Yeah, all right, A Goldenburg, that's our guy,
right yep, Ja Goldenberger, executive produce a little patron?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Am I am?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I sending you the updated patrons?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
No, I usually do that, but well he's only been
a patron since January twelfth. Okay, so that's why I
haven't seen it, because I haven't checked in a little bit.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
All right, Jay.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Goldenburg, somebody's gonna win like little Golden Willy Wonka tickets
in the prize is a Jada prototype if I understood
that right?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Okay, It's like, you know, if you bring your sick,
Grandpa's gonna jump out of bed.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
You know, by the way, four what do you think
that beds smelled like there was four old.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
People in the bed all day. I don't like to
think about that too much. Yeah, I've never had Are
are we ready? Chuck? Because I'm gonna like go down
all the kind.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Of please please stop now. We want here all to
actually want to come.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Back on the show.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
All right, alrighty everybody, and three two.
Speaker 5 (01:27):
You're watching die Cast Breakdown with Chuck Ellis, David Johns,
and Mark mccontier. So sit back, scrap it and hang on.
(01:47):
The breakdown starts.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
No, well, the folks Chuck here in welcome to you
and die Cast Breakdown. We're so glad you're here. I'm
going to give a special welcome, of course, to our
executive producer level patrons that help make the show go,
including a brand new executive producer level patron, mister j Goldenberg. Welcome, sir.
He's been a follower for quite some time and is
(02:10):
joining us at the twenty dollars a month level. That
is impressive and we are very grateful for it. Along
with him, we are grateful for first and sixty fourth Customs,
Dane's Self Driven Dreams dot Org. Thank you, Mark, Jason,
mad Visions, Thank you, Pia, Mike Sponson Customs reviews through
Another Lens twice did Cast to thank you, David, and
of course Video Geek Productions, who has joined us from
(02:33):
the very beginning before this show was even a show.
And if you want to join the ranks, you can
visit diecast breakdown dot com where you can find merch
and social media links and of course driven Dreams dot
org are cause that Mark is running. We're joining with
him and folks around the world to raise twenty thousand
(02:53):
diecast cars for kids in need that is brand new
in packaged vehicles, as well as a brand, any brand,
maybe a specific brand. We'll get to that in a minute.
But you can donate them to anywhere around the world
that receives donated items for children in need. And then
we tally all those scores up and we add them
all together and we get a really nice big number.
(03:14):
And that's how we spread the joy of tiny cars
around the world. One car equals one.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
What Mark smile?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Thank you very much, And that was my co host,
Mark Baron said, Mark, how are you today?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I'm doing great, Chuck. Thank you for asking.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And I am joined also by my co host mister
David Johns of twice diecast. David, how are you good?
Speaker 4 (03:34):
How are you Chuck? I am fantastic. Thank you so
much for asking. It's so nice that you ask.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Mark talk about we are going to be talking about
tiny cars and we're counting down the days to our
appearance at Diecast super Con, where you canvide us wandering
the floor of the Las Vegas aharn is it ahern
Ahern Hotel. We will be checking people out, interviewing and
streaming from the event, So if you see us, be
sure to come by.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And say hi, lost, just ask if yeah, we need help.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
We probably do, We will probably need a lot of help.
But helping us tonight is a guest who will also
be at die Cast super Con.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
His name is Daryl Lee.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
He is the director of brand management for a little
organization you may have heard of called Jada. They shook
things up a bit in the late and he's with
a little die Cast brand or two that you may
have heard of, and there's still kicking button taking names
in the twenty twenties with some amazing Diecast cars. And
that's what we'll be talking about with Daryl today. Daryl,
(04:34):
thanks so much for joining us today on Diecast Breakdown.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
Absolutely, it's my pleasure. Thank you guys so much for
having me.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I'm excited, we are excited to have you here. We've
had Jada in our sites for quite a while, and
we are flattered that you've given us this time to
sit down and talk about stuff. So for those who
don't know, let's go back to the beginning and let's
talk about how Jada entered the tiny car world.
Speaker 6 (04:58):
Yeah, so Jada has found by a husband and wife,
so privately owned company really put its foot on the
map back in two thousand and four and onward with
a small brand. You guys might have heard of dub
City that really cemented our legacy and our push forward
into who we are today, but really just kind of
(05:19):
owning the vehicles with the big chrome wheels and the
spinners and really leaning into that, and so we've always
referred to that internally as Jadas style, and that's kind
of carried on with a lot of the castings that
you've seen up to this point. So that's kind of
where the nice glory days were and these days we've
really transformed ourselves to be a full fledged toy company.
(05:45):
So certainly vehicles is a very big component or aspect
to our business as we are here in twenty twenty five,
but we've also added action figures and we've also done
preschool radio control vehicles well, not only that within our
core IP, we've also grown our licensing portfolio, and so
(06:06):
we work with all the major entertainment studios out here
in LA that you can think of, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, Sony,
Marvel to name a few. So it's it's been quite
the journey and we're excited to see where it's going
to go.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And be on along with those brands some other ones
that I really loved. I loved Bad City Heat, Big
Time Customs, Big Time Muscle. Of course the For Sale Today, Yeah,
for Sales series is one of my favorites of all time.
I still pick those up.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Whenever I can find on it.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I do episode No.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
That was a great night.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
One, that was a great one. Battle Machines a classic,
especially if you're one of those people that plays Car
Wars or gas Lands. It's already made right out of
the box, Mad Max vehicles ready to rock and roll
across your wasteland.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Today as well, Yep, d Rods.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Just the list goes on and on, and even Chubb City,
which is kind of a precursor to a lot of
the tuned cars that are so popular these days. That's
so you end up you and our old Buddy Lou,
we're really tearing it up back then, you're still tearing
it up now. So what is it that you really
see besides the Jada style? Like, what is it that
(07:24):
you see that people come to Jada for most often?
When it comes to cars.
Speaker 6 (07:30):
Jada's core DNA is all about great price, quality and affordability. Right,
So you get you're talking on average, what we're known
for is the one twenty four scale, and so on
average you find that at retail for about fifteen dollars, right,
twenty dollars if there's a if there's a license, So
(07:51):
you're talking in that range. Now, for that price point,
you get something that we feel is incomparable to any
other thing that's on the shelf, because not only is
at a twenty four scale, but the quality, pain execution,
the interior details. You still get the opening doors, the hood,
the trunk, all that good stuff. It's just highly, highly collectible.
And we've stayed with that DNA through these times with
(08:16):
inflation and everything else going on. Right, we've stayed true
to who we are and we're not going to deviate
away from that. That's been a lot of the fan
feedback that we always hear in person, and so yeah,
I just feel like for everything that we can offer
in terms of those talking points previously, it's hard to
beat and people really really love that.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
So we'll be back with more Diecast Breakdown after this
word from our sponsors. Legendary Hollywood concept artist and designer
Fireball Tim Lawrence has created three exclusive pieces of automotive
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Get these and other brilliant designs printed on mugs and
(08:55):
more at Fireball tim Garage dot r. Today.
Speaker 7 (08:59):
Costads Magazine is a digital publication dedicated to enhancing the
lives of connectors all across the world by providing information
on new models, reviews on brands and die cast abcessories
like figures and dioramas, throwing light on customizers, photographers, and
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Subscribe to cast Heads for free and look for collaborations
(09:22):
with Diecastmedia Network at casteadsmagazine dot com.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
And nail back to Diecast Breakdown.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Could ask a question, Darryl, when I look at the
landscape back in the early two thousands, look at and
I'm going to talk specifically about die Cast.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
What about that.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Jada DNA said, let's do the custom car culture. Let's
give it its spotlight when not a lot of companies
were making it really mainstream in the toy in the
die cast world. You guys killed it. Chuck was talking
tongue in cheek with we said, a little toy company,
because you guys are based when it comes to trend
(10:06):
setting in the die cast space. So talk about maybe
the decision to go all in on the custom cars
and bringing that to the mainstream. And really, I mean that,
and all the movies that we're all enjoying, like the
past and furious, we're all learning about these cars that
we don't know about and now we can buy them
(10:28):
on a shelf. And that's because of Jata.
Speaker 6 (10:30):
For us, we pride ourselves on being trendsetters and always
looking for the next cool thing, right, And I think
that's also another strand of Jada Dna that hasn't changed
throughout these years, going back to the dub City days.
Back then, it was always looking for, like I said,
the next coolest thing, and at the time, putting spinners
(10:52):
on big chrome wheels and neon lights under the cars
and leaning into the fast and Furious vibes and things
like that was so outlandage. People had never seen that before,
and when you saw it in person, it was just like, wow,
this is this is really cool for a real vehicle
to have this this kind of stuff. And to your point,
(11:13):
there was nothing like that out on the collectible market yet,
and so we saw an opportunity and we jumped at
it and really just carved our name into this segment
with being identified as a cool die cast manufacturer. Right
and again, as we're looking to who we are today,
that hasn't necessarily changed these days, it just looks a
(11:34):
little bit different with how car culture is being represented.
Certainly we're seeing a bit of nostalgia and the retro
theme come back with like the Underglow and things like that,
and so we want to stay true to our heritage
and incorporate that into our die cast collectibles. But to
your point, also from the licensing aspect, with things like
(11:55):
Fast and Furious, which is honestly a cultural phenomenon, we
see that the audience that grew up with those movies
now are starting to have families of their own and
introducing their kids to the movies, and it's kind of
spurring this and driving this collectibility and desire to just
(12:17):
continue to grow this hobby and really get people into
the car scene just in general. And so the fact
that we're able to tap into not only that audience
but also say, hey, we also have this line of
vehicles that's a little bit more broad and also very
easily accessible, really encourages the new generation of collectors. So
(12:37):
that's that's what we're all about. That's what we love
and it makes it really really fun.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah, darl So I think one thing to piggyback off
that is something that I can appreciate over the years
and when going down Oneisland Target or Fred Meyers, I'm
the JDM guy of the group here, so yeah, yeah,
So I was gonna ask you that and I'll follow
up with what kind of cars you're into. But when
I was growing up, I went to hot important nights
(13:02):
and stuff like that, and that was back when it
was it was cool. It's kind of changed over the years,
of course, it's not as it's not the same as
it used to be. But when I go down the
aisle and I see like your guys' stuff, it's like
it really brings you back to those days, and there's
a lot of design and they're like flashy and they
got the deep dish wheels, the camber and stuff like that.
And that's exciting for me because that kind of brings
(13:23):
me back to those days of going to those events
and for me personally having some of those vehicles. So
I think the draw to this day for people is
how the feeling of the nostalgia like to see those cars.
I mean, of course you guys have it's not all
JDM by any means, but like the ones that when
I see like an FD with the deep dish wheels
(13:46):
and like the crazy paint job, I'm like picking it up.
And if I'm not buying it because I can't buy everything,
we want to buy everything, but at least like look
at it, appreciate it and say, eh, maybe I don't
have room for that right now. But it's really cool
to see that there's still a brand that's going really
strong all these years and it hasn't like changed anything up,
(14:07):
that's still going forward and trying to give people what
they want instead of just putting stuff out there. If
it doesn't do well, they get rid of it. They
get rid of it. There's a lot of other manufacturers
that do that. So I think personally, like as an
outside look, I think that's why you guys are doing
really well too, as you putting stuff out that people
really enjoy and artistic, and that's kind of wild, because
(14:29):
a lot of stuff can be kind of blaw and
it's always it's always wild what you guys are doing.
So appreciate that.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
For sure, No, and I appreciate you for sharing that.
Like listen, I am a JDM fanboy at heart. That's
that's just where I naturally leantwards. I actually came back
from Japan like a week ago attending Tokyo Auto Salan.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, we want to have the time monet to go.
Speaker 6 (14:52):
It was, Yeah, it was amazing, And so personally speaking,
I live and breathed JDM. A lot of my car
projects are centered rou on JDM and catch me at
all the local cars and coffee events and things like that.
I'm usually I'm usually always there, but I definitely have
love and respect to all makes and models. I think
that's just at the end of the day, when you're
(15:14):
a true car enthusiast, any sort of vehicle just kind
of gets you excited, right. So having said that, I
will say that the team at JATA very much like myself,
and so when we're creating these vehicles and identifying new brands,
regardless if it's an exotic, a Euro, JDM, domestic, or
(15:37):
a truck, we all live and breathe it, and I
think that really shows and translates to the final product.
So when we roll out the final product on shelf
and a collector is able to admire whatever it is.
For your example, like an FD with deep dish wheels,
well we're really critiquing that internally before it ever makes
(15:59):
it to the shelf. Maybe the fit is not correct,
maybe it can use it, yeah, yeah, a different tread
pattern on the tires, or we really want to make
sure that we nail the bodykit that's that's on the
car down to the paint execution. All of that stuff
gets critiqued heavily by by our internal team to ensure
that we're rolling out an A plus product. And actually,
(16:20):
one of the classifications that we have internally is like,
if we don't feel like this car could be taken
to a real car show, it's not as strong, it
doesn't it doesn't really vibe with us, and so maybe
we'll pull it back and revisit it at a at
a later time. Right, These are just some of the
inner workings and things that we take into consideration with control,
(16:41):
with all of our with all of our other brands
suit and to hear the feedback not only from yourself
but all the collectors alike, it's really rewarding.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's amazing. I think that one
of the last cars I bought at yours was the
R threety five. It was like a one twenty four
scale and it's blue. Yeah, the details on it were
I mean, I have an R thirty five and you're.
Speaker 6 (17:03):
Hitting on all the topics because I got an R
thirty five also, oh no. And so leaning into the
GTR thing or a JDM thing, I'm just a big
GTR guy mainly.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, yeah, And so.
Speaker 6 (17:17):
When it comes to JADA stuff like, I will generally
critique the GTR stuff a little bit more heavily, just
because you know, you're.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Running out to the garage and going yeah not quite yeah, yeah, proportion.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I was looking like yeah, right, yeah, So I was
looking at those and they look really good. And and
then I'm a big HACO guy, so I'm trying to.
I'm actually debating on selling my R thirty five because
I've had it for about seven years or so and
I've done everything I pretty much want to do to it,
and so I want a seventy one Haco and an
(17:50):
R thirty three GTR. I have one of my properties
that my that's my buddies, and he's he's ready to
get rid of it, and I'm like, hmmm, how much
you want for that thing?
Speaker 6 (17:58):
Opportunities opportunities.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, I'm a big Skyline guy to the day I die.
I mean it's probably when it comes to I love
all cars. I love muscle cars. I work on cars
all the time, and and uh I'll always pick a
JDM over. I mean it's just like you have a
sixty seven Chavelle and you have like a seventy one Skyline.
I'm just like Skyline, but I like the I love
the the US cars too, but they're just not as
(18:21):
cool to me.
Speaker 6 (18:22):
Yes, like I said, Jay, I'm the same way. I
got love and respect for all that stuff. I certainly
I certainly want. I have a big itch actually for
an old muscle car build. But yeah, I'll always go
back to I'll always go back to jaw that's cool and.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Always branch out. Yeah. I mean I've I've gotten the
itch many times on the US cars, the USDM stuff,
the old stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
But you know, guys, there was that one time somebody
took a Mustang and put it two j Z in it.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, I don't. That's just one of those
things that I just like, never like I feel off
about that. I don't. I like, don't know.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
I used to. I used to feel that way, but
now I'm starting to get into this state of mind
where it's.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
It's everything's okay, Like everything's like it's.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Not even that. I just think I can definitely respect
the a creativity and be the boss to be able
to do something like that.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
I get it.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
It's refreshing. It's refreshing, and I understand that that might
upset a lot of peers and things like that. But
in a day and age where I feel like everybody
is trying to stand out just a little bit, as
long as it keeps car culture alive, I'm all for it.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah. I mean I understand it too. I Mean I
had a eighty nine thirty two that I put a
two J in back before it was cool and I
was probably like the third one in the world to
do it.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
So I did.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
My buddy did a swap because he swaps. He's got
a shop called Jaz Powered Garage and he puts jay
Z's and everything. So and this was also before it
was a thing like he put jay Z's in Lovos
Three's like just jay Z the world and so he
put that in mine. And and it was so cleanly
done that I would pop the hood at shows and
people like, oh cool. And and this was probably I
(20:07):
don't know, like fifteen years ago, and uh and I'd
say take another look, like take another look, and then
they go, oh, no way, because it was they didn't
realize it was a two jay Z.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
But because I'm a diehard Toyota guy, but I'm also
a diehard Nissan guy.
Speaker 6 (20:22):
Both both great, Yeah, both great.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Both great. I think the jay Z it definitely has
a little bit more reliability factors to it because.
Speaker 6 (20:30):
But I will say, just the way it is, I
think RBS sound better.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
No, yeah they do. They don't sound like so yeah,
but yeah, I can understand.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
I I have it.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Pretty much everything I own besides my AR thirty five
is swapped. I swapped something else into it. But you
know that always carries it's gremlins that you have to
figure out once something's not working right, So.
Speaker 6 (20:52):
Always that's cool. But this is what I'm saying, right
like for us at Jada, like we live and breathe
this stuff, and we can talk about cars and projects
and swaps and things like that, like all right, and
so to be able to have that passion for vehicles
and how that translate to the collectibles no matter what
(21:14):
we're doing, that's just that's in a way, it's kind
of like a dream come true.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
So for sure, Yeah, it's a magical thing.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Yeah, don't touch the dial. Die Cast Breakdown will be
right back after these messages. Die Cast Breakdown is produced
in partnership with twice die Cast and Driven Dreams. Or
go YouTube, check out their channels in the video description,
and subscribe for more epic die cast content.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Hey, this is Larry wood Made. This is Derek from
Honest de Cant. This is Chad writing from Round two,
and this is Mike from gas Lams s rt JO
Vita Shows. Is Chimpion DJK.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
You're watching die Cast Breakdown.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
And now the thrilling conclusion of this week's episode of
die Cast Breakdown.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
All right, Well, they do other stuff besides JDM.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
They do, and one of those things that I really
like is you guys do a lot of movie and
TV show related vehicles. Those are more my wheelhouse and
something that has. You've also gotten me to break a
very important rule in my collection, which my collection a
while years ago, I said, I'm only doing one sixty
(22:32):
four from here on out. I'm not doing anything bigger,
anything smaller. I had way too big a collection. I
downsized a lot. And then you guys came out with
that Nano series, and man, is that Nano series cool?
And you just the Fast and the Furious ones. I've
got all of those littles, the dioramas, the house, the shop,
(22:54):
the train, and then the back to the Future one
with the clock tower in the street and the little
Toyota pick up. Holy cow, those things are just the best.
And I even did a build of Doc Brown's van,
and I used a certain other brand's van that has
little opening doors in the back, and it was just
(23:16):
the Nano Back to the Future of Delarean is just
the right size to sit inside the back facing out,
so it's got the DeLorean in the back of it.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
That's so cool.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, And I just so was the what was the
story behind the Nano series and what scale exactly is that?
Is it a scale or is it just kind of
very How did that whole line come around?
Speaker 6 (23:38):
Well, first of all, you're not the first person to
say that we've gotten others to break a rule of
only collecting one particular scale. Seems like we've done a
pretty good job at convincing people to go outside of
the one sixty four scale, whether that's for a bigger
twenty four scale or even a even bigger eighteen scale.
But it's cool to hear that now we're talking about
(24:01):
the Nano scale. That's an interesting one that kind of
came about with the Fast and Furious license. First, it
was just kind of a an item that came to
life from a brainstorm with our good partners at Universal.
And then we had one video of Dom's house that
was the first one, which we called the Nano scene.
(24:23):
It came with the two iconic cars, right that video
went viral for a little bit on social media, and
we're like, hey, I think we have something here. Yeah, Like,
let's continue to build onto it. And so really, it
just evolved into something where as people that love movies
(24:45):
or pop culture in general being able to offer something
that just kind of freezes a moment in time, like
an iconic scene, we just thought that positioning was great.
And again, as as fans of cars and movies, pop
cold sure all of that stuff. Internally, we just kind
of geek out when we're internally talking about this idea, like, oh,
(25:06):
how cool would it be if we had this property
and we did this scene from the movie. Right, So
that's kind of how it came about. And regarding your
question to the scale, we've gotten that question quite a
bit and the answer is generally the same. We don't
really classify it as a scale other than a nanoscale.
(25:28):
That's just what we call it internally. Outwardly, we also
say that it's just a nanoscale to be able to
achieve something like that with a decent level of quality,
but also have it be able to roll back and forth. Sure,
just be a nice complementary display piece to the scene.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Sure. Well, and then you've got the other ones too,
like the Gijo ones and the Transformer ones, where of
course Optimus Prime is not going to be the same
scale because you're keeping it to a particular length. Like
Starscream is a much smaller scale because he's in a
fifteen Ego fighter jet. So those are those are all great.
I think they're fantastic. And again, you made me break
a very important rule, but I'm glad I did.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
And I love they are.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
They are very small that I that I do like
and I love I love that the I love that
the Oh, Mark, do you have one of the house ones?
Speaker 3 (26:20):
No?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
No, okay, I have the micro machines and stuff as
a kid.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, so that the house one comes with a little
dining table and a grill and little tiny chairs and
those things. Oh my gosh, you just like you breathe
the wrong way.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
They are.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
They are so small you gotta be very careful around them.
And I've got two kids, so I'm always like, all right,
we have all the chairs. Do they where they go?
Chairs went off to So I actually bought a second
one just in case I lose, because I was like,
I'm gonna lose. You got you gotta have it. You
gotta have a redundant set, yeah for sure. So but
those are those are great. So kudos to those. And
I mean, and you got back to the future and
(26:56):
fast and furious.
Speaker 6 (26:58):
G I Joe Armers Busters.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yeah, yeah, is there a Ghostbusters?
Speaker 6 (27:03):
One might be maybe you heard it.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
In here.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Speaking you're speaking my language. Now that's my costume every
year for Halloween as a Ghostbuster.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
I mean, the thing the thing with us, and we
get quite a lot of questions too, right, It's like, oh,
what's next, what's next? Well, the answer is generally the
same too, is like, because we've evolved into this giant
powerhouse of licensing deals with the studios out here, it's
like anything could be a possibility as long as it
(27:39):
makes sense, right, So.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (27:43):
Yeah, I mean if you look at like the range
of our Hollywood Rides line, for example, it has the
bulk of all our licenses that we work with, and
so to see it possibly appear in another range, like,
it's it's not out of the realm of possibilities.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
So kind of on that same line, I want to
talk about the Simbadiki transition in twenty nineteen, right, talk
about Yeah, we talk about the benefits of having this
really humongous, well established company come in and offer their
(28:20):
strength to an already solid brand like Jada toys. What
does that mean to a company like Jada in terms
of what you can do now?
Speaker 6 (28:31):
It has honestly been the perfect match since our acquisition
back in eighteen, there was no real other company that
we felt like was going to be the perfect fit.
With them being based out in Germany, certainly they have
the European UGA market down there that they have a
(28:51):
very very strong footing, and so they had desires to
want to expand into the US market. And so I'm
firm believer that timing is everything. And so at the
time when the opportunity popped up and the Symbidico Group
had interest, we were kind of looking at each other internally,
We're like, this makes perfect sense because we also, like
(29:14):
I've been mentioning so far, just this a vast portfolio
of licenses, and we already have our foot and door
with our great partners at Walmart and Target. Like it.
Just it was an easy transition for them to acquire
us and then just hit the ground running right now.
Through the acquisition itself, they have been great to work with,
(29:36):
and I think the biggest reason for that is because
Jada was privately owned family business, and the Symbidica Group
is very much a family business too, so a lot
of those family values of treating the team and really
want to maintain that carried through the acquisition. And so
(29:56):
for us at Jada, it's been wonderful. We remained fully autonomous.
We do what we do in terms of our expertise
with licensing and creating cool vehicles and and good product
So it's it's been great all around. And and to
your point of having such a big entity support you,
that makes everything a little bit easier, right, because now
(30:18):
when you're talking about like overall toy company, we are
now a full fledged global toy company, being able to
offer a variety of different things, right and strategically, being
able to lean on each other's strengths in different markets,
and even when it comes to a product development and
collaborating on future lines, which I'm sure you guys might
(30:38):
have heard of, like these are now possibilities that we're
that we're not there before. And so to be able
to find the synergy together and really amplify through each
other's networks, it's been wonderful, honestly. And then they're great
people that work with I There's not enough good things
to say about that team the collaboration with them has
(30:58):
been has been wonderful and hopefully for many many years
to come to go.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
No, I agree, and I when I look at the
Simbadicki website, it's really it's almost scarily wholesome. You look
at it in your life.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
That's the family, that's the family aspect.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Yeah, you get that whole vibe, and like, if they're
willing for that to be your first impression of this
big company, that's got to be really important to them.
And when we hear you talk, it does seem like
a perfect fit. We'll get into a little bit later,
but an amazing collaboration was just revealed for the upcoming
(31:35):
Diecast super Convention. We'll talk about that later, but I
want to put that out there now to make sure
that we do talk about it before we cut the interview.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Darrel, I wanted to ask you about I think I
believe it was twenty twenty four when you guys paired
up with sun Kang with the Liberty Walk partnership. Those
are a couple of my favorite things. Sun Kang's super
cool dude for you. For anyone that doesn't ring a ball,
that's Han Tokyo Drift and all the other movie he's
been a ton of them. Seems like a really down
to earth guide from what I've never met him, but
(32:04):
i'd like to. We would like to, Yeah, we'd like to.
We'd like to have at some time. Yeah. Yeah, So
tell us a little bit about that. And then Liberty Walk.
I mean, Liberty Walks is amazing and I recently was
watching I think Haggarty TV. A big fan of the
Haggarty channel, and they go through and show us everything
with Liberty Walk. The forty that they built, that's nuts,
(32:28):
all the other skylines that they have. Yeah, it's just
I gotta go there. And then they have their old building,
they have their new building, and it's the same story.
I think you can probably relate to them because they're
like they're just they're going outside the lines with stuff.
They're they're not They're they're ticking off Ferrari. Ferrari's probably
got a ceason assistant letter like really quickly who knows. Yeah,
(32:50):
but they don't care. They'll take anything Ferrari, Lamborghini, Like
I think they had a Kutash that they're doing on
next or something like that. Lamborghini, so it's like it
doesn't matter what it is, they're gonna make it so
much cooler. So, yeah, just tell us how that came
about and maybe what's to come in the future if
(33:10):
you have any information on that.
Speaker 6 (33:11):
Absolutely, So it's a long winded story, but I'll try
and I'll try and make it brief. But there are
also two separate things. So with Sung, actually it it's
so great when everything that you mentioned about him is
absolutely factual. He's the most down earthed car guy that
(33:32):
I feel like you could ever meet. And the relationship
happened so organically, which is the best thing in my opinion. Certainly,
we're a big partner with Universal in the production of
all the Fast and Furious cars, and it just so
happened that he had a two forty Z that was
(33:55):
in one of the movies, which is Yeah, which we
had named dot Z right. It was a black and
red one. It had a ghosted koyfish and it made
a very very quick cameo appearance in one of the
Fast movies. And so we did it, and he got
wind of it and reached out to our team or
our marketing agency actually asking for a few samples, and
(34:18):
then we requested a meeting with him and just to
introduce ourselves and and things like that, and the relationship,
like I said, organically just kind of blossomed from that
point and we were like, we feel like this is
a match made in heaven. We should we should do
something together. It'd be really really cool. And so we've
always had an ambition to want to work with him
not as some king the actor, but some king the
(34:40):
car enthusiast. Right, those are two very different things. And
so in getting to know him and talk with him
just about his love for all things automotive and the
way he talks about his cars, it's it's really refreshing
because I think from an average person's point of view,
you see this icon, right, this this actor, and you
(35:04):
kind of go into it with a somewhat of a
perception because he's a celebrity actor. Sure, But quite the contrary,
he's not like that. Very he's just very genuine and
that's my favorite thing about him. And so all that
to say, the relationship with him has been very organic
up to this point, which, like I said, is the
best thing. And he is our brand ambassador, so we
(35:26):
are going to be developing a line with him just
around him with his cars, his figure, things like that.
So more on that to be shared probably at Diecast
Super Continent in greater detail, but that'll be ready by
middle of this year. So I'm excited to I'm excited
to release that. So separate from that is now Liberty
(35:48):
Walk and that's an interesting component because we partnered with
them to build a modern interpretation of a Fast inferious car, right,
and so that's where we had the conversation with our
partners at Universal to continue to celebrate the global impact
that the Fast franchise has had specifically on car culture.
(36:09):
The conversation was pretty much like, hey, obviously what we
do in terms of the Diecast collectibles, we want to
continue to celebrate the Fast franchise, and because we're always
out at these grassroots events, why not let us have
our hand to do to build something with Jada's style, right,
going back to that term, and so that's kind of
how it came about. And so we reached out to
(36:29):
Liberty Walk and they were totally on board with that,
and so together we built a Liberty Walk silhouette GTR
that has the modern interpretation of the Silver Skyline from
two Fast THU furious that Paul Walker drove and so
that's the car that I roll out to all of
the local events and things like that, and it's always
(36:50):
fun to be able to bring that car out. Now,
we're also scaling our partnership with Liberty Walk, right, so
obviously we're going to be we have an official partnership together,
we're going to be replicating a bunch of Liberty Walk
cars into different die cast models, whether that's in twenty
four scale, thirty two scale, or even RC right. So
that's the scope of the partnership. And actually part of
(37:12):
the reason why I was at Tokyo Auto Salon was
a guest of Liberty Walk, so I had the opportunity
to be able to hang out with them at the show,
kind of see what the vibe is like, go visit
their offices out in Japan, which is insane by the way.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Yeah, I think it was with Larry Chen's video, I
think yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6 (37:33):
So to see that in person was super cool. And
it was at the end of Tokyo Auto Salon, so
all the cars were coming back, right, so the Ferrari
forty was back out there, and I was able to
see the thirty two Cairo Racer that they that's really cool.
But it's cool, man, because I think once you're in it,
you start meeting these people and you form these relationships,
(37:56):
and it's like you start to see who has a
hand and either helping to build a car or putting
an event together or doing the media stuff, and it
just becomes like this tight circle and it's just so
cool to see John Sabal, who's also a very good friend.
He helped design the Livery that's on our GTR and
he's also helped us design a few other die cast
(38:18):
vehicles in the past as well. But he had a
hand in developing the Lamborghini Mira wide body kit that
they also unveil that Tokyo Auto Salon, right.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So it's just I haven't even seen that yet.
Speaker 6 (38:30):
I don't think it's wild, and so it just comes
full circle where you're like, oh, you're working with them,
and now we're lefting with you, and then it's just
exactly So it's it's cool, and so we are very
excited to have Liberty Walk as one of our partners.
I think you're going to see a lot of cool
things from us starting this year, going into the next
(38:50):
two three years. The plan is to really grow out
that Liberty Walk portfolio. They are the one of the
biggest the Japanese tuning scene. And again to your point,
I I love the ambition and creativity to just push
the limit. Right, going back to our small conversation of
jay z or RB and a Mustang, right, like, who
(39:12):
has the idea to think to cut up a Ferrari
F forty?
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Like yeah, so as they just want to Yeah, they
want to make it.
Speaker 6 (39:20):
I love being able to push the boundaries of things
and do something that kind of goes against I don't know, tradition.
It's just refreshing to see. And again it might not
be everyone's taste, but I can't deny that it doesn't
look cool, so ye.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah, for sure. The thing that I like about watching
like basically like baby documentary about him is that he
was I think Larry Channel's driving his R thirty four
and it like the AC went out in it and
they just pulled it in and fixed it right there
at Liberty Walk, and he's like, Liberty Walks fixing my AC.
In mind, they just he just did it. You know,
they're in there and fix it.
Speaker 6 (40:00):
Also, the most down to earth people, for as big
as they are now in the automotive scene, like I
can't even there are no words to describe like the
hospitality that they showed, not only myself but some of
the others that were along on the trip. Understanding that
Tokyo Auto Salon is such a huge event for them,
(40:24):
they were just very, very kind every step of the way.
I think that just hope that all translates into the
final product where it's like, understandably you can see there's
a great connection. There's a great relationship there. Everything is
super organic and there's just a passion and love for
this kind of stuff. And then when you have everything
outside of that also be like a plus. It just
(40:48):
it affects the overall product and everything is a win.
So that's what makes it really exciting.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Sure that you guys have been doing great.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Well, we like these someone was hanging out.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
It's I like the ones where Mark comes out of
his shell some So that's uh, that's good.
Speaker 6 (41:05):
I can start talking about I can talk about cars
and things like that all day.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Sure, Sure, yeah, I start talking JDM and yeah the
light up.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
David and I are like over here going yes engines.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Yeah, yeah, Well I guess the last thing to touch
on with like sun King. The reason I like the
guy so much is like too, is because I've got
a buddy down in California that's got it insane amount
of like he's got the cleanest Z two forty z,
he's got a couple, he's got a hakoh, he's got
a five to ten, he's got multiple on cars. And
he told me that he Sun King reached out to
(41:38):
him because he liked his wheel fitment on his two
forty and they chatted on the phone for two hours.
So it's just like that's what, Yeah, just a regular dude,
and he's like, dude, just we just chatted him for
like a couple of hours about real fitments and what
I'm doing on this because he liked the way this
looked and he liked all my cars, and and that's
cool because I don't get I don't get hung up
(42:00):
on celebrities very off. I don't get starstruck. It's just
but I kind of do when they're when they're down
to earth people, like when they're just like talking and
just talking to anybody like they're just regular people and
just just chatting. That's when I have respect for doctors
and race car drivers and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 6 (42:18):
Absolutely, and and that's that's who he is. And I
and I've mentioned this to him a few times also.
I I'm the same way. I don't really get starstruck
at all. But there are moments where you're having a
conversation with him and you're just talking about cars, and
I have to pull myself back and I'm like, this
(42:39):
is really happening right now, Like this is like this
is actually really cool. But he's that kind of guy,
and he's very inquisitive and the way that he talks
about the projects or the cars that he has or anything.
Really I just use cars as the focal point because
obviously that's the basis of what we talk about primarily. Sure,
(43:00):
he can go into the greatest link and detail about
the engine set up and where it came from, who
made it, why we chose it, and everything in between.
Like everything in any of his cars, what he chooses
to do with him matters, and everything has a story
and if there's no reason for it, then it doesn't
(43:23):
matter and it shouldn't be on the car, right. So
very rarely do you find an enthusiast like that that
really can go into the into the greatest detail of
even like a little license plate bolt.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Everything is intentional.
Speaker 6 (43:39):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, and that's so refreshing to be around.
And it's also, quite honestly, just as a car guy,
very inspiring, very refreshing. And to that point, obviously, when
we're developing his car into the die Cast collectibles, we
want to be able to tell that story. We also
want to be able to share it and do the
(44:00):
actual model justice right. With as much attention to detail
that he puts into the real car, we want to
be able to do our part and capture all those
details within the die Cast model. Certainly, we're limited because
we only have so much of a size that we
can work with, but we want to make sure that
all the finer details are there as much as we can.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Awesome, and we've alluded to this a little bit, But
do you want to talk a little bit more about
die Cast super Con? What's coming up, what to expect,
What are some of the things that Jada is bringing
to this show that people should come out to see.
Speaker 6 (44:32):
Yeah, so we are returning to die Cast super Con
as the title sponsor, something that we're really excited about.
We're super excited to see a lot of our industry
friends out there and seeing all the new exciting things
that they're going to be bringing out for us, to
be able to see familiar faces of the event organizers
of the show, to see your guys in person, and
(44:54):
be able to have that live interaction, and just be
able to have FaceTime with the fan that are just
fans of Jada. I think that's the thing that we
always value the most, that's the most rewarding product wise.
I think people are going to see something really exciting,
something that we've never done as Jada. So alluding to
it a little bit earlier, we're going to be officially
(45:16):
showcasing our collaboration line with our parent company in Sebadiki
and their brand major at This brand will be called
the Collection Series, and everything about it is going to
be super super premium and very intentional.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
So it is.
Speaker 6 (45:33):
Tell me more, it is going to be a premium
line of one to sixty four scale vehicles. There's a
few golden nuggets that I'm going to withhold for now
that I will share at the at the event of
what makes this line extra special. Let's say there's certainly
a nice marketing strategy behind it. At that I think
(45:56):
a lot of die cast collectors and enthusiasts will appreciate.
But it's also our song to give back to the community,
right kind of mentioning it a little bit before. We
want to do justice to these vehicles and really have
it well represented. And as much as we want to
say we want to differentiate ourselves within the one sixty
(46:16):
four scale market and things like that, there's only so
much that you can do, so we just want to
make sure that we're representing the Jada brand name the
best that we can. While we enter this space with
the team at major At, it's going to be super
super exciting, and so not only will we be showcasing
the entire first wave, but we're also going to be
(46:37):
having a Diecast super Con exclusive. We're going to take
one of the cars in the first wave. It's going
to be a different color treatment, it'll have a bit
of a special packaging, and it'll be the first time
that people attending the show will be able to actually
not only see but purchase the first major At collection vehicle.
Speaker 4 (46:56):
There.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
It's amazt exciting stuff. Yeah, well, David, they even got
me hooked on major.
Speaker 6 (47:01):
Att so I look, they have quite a yeah, they do.
Like the history for people that are not as familiar,
I mean they go back back like nineteen sixties.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
Major. It was my first four way four a into
like the idea that other countries around the world were
making cool diecasts. I was like, wait, what has happened here?
And look, I want to I want to touch on
this there real quick, because you guys are doing a
special event at the super Con that the organizer, Steve Johnson,
has put together for the ladies, which is kind of cool.
(47:32):
There's like a wine and chocolate event you talked about.
You're holding the Golden nuggets for later for at the show,
but we are going to run with that theme because
at this event, fans and if you're going to the
super Con, I want you to listen. There's going to
be an event with chocolate and wine and some of
the boxes of chocolate might have a Golden ticket in
it and that would mean a prize probably going to
(47:55):
be a really cool Jada piece. As far as we
know up to now, it might change, but look for
It'll be cool. Okay, yeah, look for that. Look for
that in future posts here on Dotcast Media Network. I
just wanted to get that in before we wrap up.
I think it's really cool because you just talked about
that interaction with the community, and I love the fact
that you guys are part of an event for the
(48:16):
female collectors and the spouses, and we want everybody to
have a good time at the super Convention, and that's
just another way that it's going to happen.
Speaker 6 (48:26):
That's what it's all about. Like I said, anytime we
are able to have the opportunity to have FaceTime with
people that actually collect our stuff and our fans of
the brand, that's always the most rewarding thing for myself
and the team, honestly. And this year is going to
be extra special just because now although we were acquired
(48:47):
in twenty eighteen, this will be the full of the
first actual collaboration facing that we'll have as Jada and
major Ed together. And what makes it extra special is
that the major At team just announced their brand refresh
and so they have a new look, they have a
new feel, a new logo, and now we're launching a
(49:10):
new collaboration project with them. Yeah, it's just truly driving
home that synergy and for us to be able to
partner with them and represent them here in the us.
That's a great honor and certainly we're looking to do
the best that we can to represent them as well
as we can. And so, like I said earlier, it's
a match made in heaven, and I think this year's
(49:31):
super Con is going to be extra special for us
because of that, and we couldn't think of a much
better event to be Wil come out with that news
and showcase the new line and all that good stuff.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
It's gon'll be awesome, fantastic. Can't wait.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
All right, folks, well you heard it all here.
Speaker 4 (49:47):
Get out out to Vegas.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
If you can and see the four of us because
we'll be there and we're looking forward to seeing you
there as well.
Speaker 4 (49:54):
Well.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Darryl, again, I can't thank you enough for joining us.
We've been thrilled at the idea having Jada on, and
now we have. I usually ask people where you can
find them and follow them. Where to find Jada, Go
out there and.
Speaker 6 (50:08):
Toys JAA toys at a mass retail store.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Yeah, just go to any any major place where Finder
toys are sold and you're going to find that Jada name.
And yeah, they do a mighty mean smoky in the
Bandit trans am so.
Speaker 4 (50:24):
Check it out. It comes with the belt buckle. It's
pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
So alrighty well, thank you again Darryl, and thank you watchers,
listeners wherever you are bringing it to the end. If
you had another episode, if you want to leave a
little comment on the YouTube video and I has known
you made it to the end. We love the Shutdown
crew over here and we like to give you a
little special thank you, so leave that. And while you're
down there type and stuff, why don't you make sure
you hit the like, subscribe, share all that good stuff.
(50:49):
If you're tired of looking at our faces, you can
listen to us on your favorite podcasting app. And if
you're tired of listening to us, you can look at
our faces on your favorite YouTube app. So go check
that out, and of course visit diecastbreakdown dot com, where
you can become a patron much like the people you're
seeing on my screen.
Speaker 4 (51:06):
If you're watching us on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
That is again shout out to those patrons that make
the show go and a shout out to you making
it to the end of another episode. And as always,
want to thank you for coming along with us for
the ride. So until next time, stay resh cheesebags.
Speaker 5 (51:21):
Thanks for listening to die Cast Breakdown. If you enjoy
today's show, please rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts
and tell a friend to listen in. Find Diecast Breakdown
on your favorite social media platforms, or visit diecastmedianetwork dot
com to learn more about this and our other projects.
Die Cast Breakdown is a presentation of Flying Valiant and
(51:44):
the die Cast Media Network.
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