Diecast Icons: Carson Lev About Hot Wheels, Diecast Culture, and Design

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The other folks chuck here, just a quick note before
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we get started. For those who didn't see the announcement,
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a die Cast Breakdown is going on an indefinite hiatus
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after this episode and the following episode that just a
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lot of personal stuff has come up in our lives.
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There are children speaking in complete sentences that did not
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exist in our worlds before this project started. And things
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have changed and personal needs have changed. And while we
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love this project and we love you, and we love
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everything about this community and what we've done in it,
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it's time to take a pause, not a stop, and
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figure out how we can best make Diecast Media Network
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work in our lives. And again, we're still eagerly looking
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for people who want to keep this project going, whether
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it's doing Diecast Media Network content or Diecast Breakdown episodes. Again,
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we can't pay you, but if you like what we
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do and we haven't certainly made any money off of it,
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and you want to join this quick exotic cause, you
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can always email at diecast medianetwork at gmail dot com
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and say hi to me again. Thank you to everyone
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who got us this far. We've shut down the Patreon
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and the memberships on YouTube just because we don't feel
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right taking y'all's money when we're not making anything new.
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Stick around, though, because there's going to be new stuff coming.
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We are going to be posting when we can, albeit
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probably infrequently, and it may not be die Cast Breakdown episodes,
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but I'm hopeful that when things settled out a little
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bit more, we'll be back giving you regular content on
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this show. So again, check out diecast Breakdown dot com
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for links to the merch. The merch will still be available.
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You can check out our back catalog. We got over
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one hundred and twenty episodes that you guys can enjoy
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and get caught up on those because a lot of
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you haven't seen them according to our stats. But check
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that stuff out, follow us on Instagram, shoot us A
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mat said, if you want to say hey, we'd love
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to hear from you, and stay tuned to this episode
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because it's a real good one. It's Carson Love and
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it is a dynamite episode. I am so proud of
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this episode and we got some amazing stories from him.
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You definitely want to stick around for that. So if
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you're new here, Hi, this is awkward, subscribe please and
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go back and look at our old stuff and stick
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around because there's gonna be some cool stuff heading your way,
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hopefully sooner than we think. So with that out of
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the way, we got two more times to do in
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the countdown, so let's make it happen. In three two.
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You're watching Diecast Breakdown with Chuck Ellis, David Johns, and
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Mark mccont wear. So sit back, scrap it and hang on.
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The breakdown starts.
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Now either folks. Chuck here and welcome to die Cast
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breakdon We're so glad you're here with us today, and
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I am especially grateful that we are joined by our
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executive producer level patrons, mister David Johns. Hey, I know
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that guy, Driven Dreams dot org, Elevation, Diecast Racing, Jay Goldenberg,
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Christian stanaland Lewis Big Lutana haa, Hey, I know that
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guy too, reviews through the Netherlands and the Weber Brothers.
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You can always help us out by hitting that subscribe button,
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doing a like, and if you really like what we're doing,
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give it a share. That really helps a lot. You
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can also find out more about Driven Dreams dot org.
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That is where we're raising cars for kids in need
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all over the world. You don't have to re check,
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you don't have to leake a stamp. You just have
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to have a local charity in mind that receives toys,
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and just report in the cars that you've donated, find
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some way to document it, whether it's a receipt or photos,
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and we'll add that to the Italium. So, now that
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we've got all that fun stuff out of the way,
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I am joined by my colleague, my co host, my friend,
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mister David John's David, how the heck are you today?
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I'm good, Chuck. Thank you for asking somebody. We're talking
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to somebody tonight that I've wanted to talk to for
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a long time.
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I couldn't agree more. And Mark is also here with us.
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He'll be joining shortly. We are working through some technical difficulties,
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but we're going to soldier right on through here with
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the interview. So I am thrilled and delighted to be
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joined by Carson lev He was a what wasn't he? Please?
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What wasn't he? Has been all sorts of things. Currently
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he is what president CEO of Redfinn. Yeah, yeah, Redfinn.
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We're going to talk about that. That's a really cool
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project that he's been working on But Carson lev, thank
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you so much for being with us today here on
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Dikes crect.
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Thanks for having me.
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Appreciate it absolutely, And like David said, yes, this is
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something that we've kind of We've had our little manifestation
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board of guests wanted to have on the show, and
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Carson has been right up there at the top. We
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just had Amy, so we checked Amy boiling off the list.
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But we are thrilled to have you here and talk
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a little bit about really just how you brought the
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worlds of big cars and tiny cars together. But you know,
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before we get into that, I want to talk a
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little bit about your background, Carson, because you didn't exactly
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get your start in the big car or little car world.
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So let's talk a little bit about where you where
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you got your design bug from.
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Yeah, I was more of a fan of it as
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a kid, So I grew up in the Lakewood Lombi Cherry,
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which is really close to like three major race tracks
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between Lines Dragstrip, Ascot which was circle track and motorcycle,
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and then Marine Stadium which was the boat races. And
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I could move around of my bike through the area,
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so I was always hanging out to drags. I grew
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up a bunch of guys in junior high, in elementary
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action in elementary where it started with guys whose dads
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were either drivers or builders, or welders or painters or
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fabricators or engine builders, and so I was immersed in
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that field. I still remember walking to school in kindergarten
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with my buddy across the street, Marty Simmons, and the
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contest we had every day on the way to school
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was you had to name every car you saw the year,
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the make you know the model and any nuance about it.
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And if you lost, and he could go. And if
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you long, if you kept a string all the way
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from our house to the school and you did it
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on the way home, then he had to buy you
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a coke. And so we would challenge each other to
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no cars. So then I'm reading everything and look it up.
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So it started early. And then of course with cars,
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I always was fascinated by the car design. Why one
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car looked one way, why one studio had a certain look,
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why Fordes looked different than Chevy's, and that stuff. So
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and I sketched and drew all the time. So as
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a big fan of the design stuff, starting as a kid.
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The thing that I find interesting, like, you did an
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industrial design degree programming college, and then you spent some
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time in the medical field. Of all places, it was
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like kind of a roundabout way to get back to cars.
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So it happened there.
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Well, it's a pretty nice thing to say, but I
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can say it now. So my mom raised four kids
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by herself. My dad died early. Me and my brother
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were both very active. I was in gymnastics, a bunch
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of sports, and I I was breaking bones, getting stitches
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all the time. And so my family doctor was like
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literally on call. Well when he was on call, if
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he drove in to maybe the emergency room or I
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have had an appointment, he always drove his Dino Ferrari.
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And when I would get there, I'd walk in the
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back parking lot and I would sit there and look
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at that dino ferrari. If it was open, I'd sit
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in it until I was called to go and see
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the doctor. And so literally I wanted to become a
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doctor because I thought that was a fast track to
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a diino Ferrari. So my lovely wife, I'm still married too.
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When we got engaged, I was applying to med school
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and thinking about going to med school biology major, thinking
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about you know, doing that as a career. Get ready
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to apply, I should say, And went on rounds of
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my family doctor and realized that job sucked and this
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is your talk in nineteen seventy four. So he talked
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me out of me and he laughed. He goes, said
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sidino is, and he goes, you know, I only drive
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that when I see you. I don't drive that. It's
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not like a daily driver. And so what I did,
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I was on an athletics scholarships. I'd take my aptitude
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tests and you know, over again. And so they discovered,
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you know, they said, you know, we sell the science
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and biology in math. Do you draw? You an artist
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because it looks like you have skill set. I go, yeah,
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I paint, draw, but that's not a career, and they said, no,
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it is. So I brought my portfolio in met with
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the head of the industrial design department at lom Beach
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State University and he left. He said, kid, what are
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you doing all this time at the wrong end of
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the university. You should have been up here to begin with.
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So he accepted me in an impacted program was a
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six year program. I was in my last semester of
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my junior year. He accepted me as a junior into
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the program that already was impacted, only if I would
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audit all the previous classes and do a senior thesis,
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all year long thesis on medical product design. And so
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I chose TE scanning because that was a year that
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Nobel Prize was awarded to doctor Godfrey Hounsfield for CT scanning.
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At my first presentation as a senior, I got hired
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by a medical design company doing CT scanners and later
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got to work with doctor god Hansie. So I was
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in medicine, but I still always had race cars in
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the garage and was doing signs and lettering and Christmas
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windows and pinstriping and helmets, design work for T shirts.
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I always had a side business because medical product would
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take five and seven years until you saw a product
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in a room, right until it was done. When you
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load up a pinstriping brush, you draw something, you see
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a line, you see a shape, you see a color immediately,
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and I needed that kind of faster feedback, if you will.
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And it was great therapy after going through science and
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medicine and reading all the time, to just go into
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my studio, going to garage and paint, so I always
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maintained both. I was very lucky to work for the
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guys who invented CT scanning, EMI and omni medical. I
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worked for SARTs and cob and blood handling. Pfiser was
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my big career. Worked for Baxter, so yeah, it was
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a great career. But the medical device industry changed a
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little bit when we deregulated it in the mid nineties.
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And I was lucky that Pfizer had sent me back
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to kind of not to college but for training and
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CAT and computer aided design and rapid prototype three D
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PRI and it was like getting a master's in computer science.
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And I did that for Pfizer for a few years
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until they sold their divisions off, and then I got
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recruited by a startup firm, an IPO that was starting
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in technology. Did that for about two years doing industrial
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or industrial design product design using computers, and Mattel was
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our biggest client, and next thing you know, Mateld made
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me a job offer, so I ended up at Mattel
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for a while, first doing Disney entertainment products, which was fine.
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The guy who hired me out I always mentioned his name,
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Gene Insley Gene was in charge of worldwide engineering at Mattel.
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Wonderful guy. I've had great mentors and we could talk
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about early days of Mickey Thompson and stuff like that later,
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but Jean was a great mentor at Mattel. He brought
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me in and basically, you know, said, look, I need
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you in the Disney Entertainment because it's a real fast
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turn and the three D printing and the computer stuff
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is what we need to get our products in time.
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Back at the day, we did every product for Disney
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movies that were done, and every product had to be
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every toy, action figure, puzzle game, everything had to be
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in in the DC's distributions centers thirty days before the
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movie launched. So he didn't have much time. So he
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made me a deal, though, he I need you to
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do this for a year and a half to two years,
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and then when the hot Wheel job comes up, it's yours.
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So I ran engineering first and I took over design. Okay, yeah,
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but later got licensing.
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I was gonna say, you must have been like eyeing
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that division over there the whole time. Here Disney going
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oh man, it's coming.
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And the fun story is that the design guys and
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the design center. They used to sit out in the
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loading dock and they had a plastic picnic table and
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all the stickers would go on there. From the races,
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you put stickers all over. The guys would sign it drawn.
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And I always I was in the tower and the
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corporate side of things with what I was doing, but
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I always had lunch with those guys. Well, Larry Wood
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was there, and I knew Larry from the early times
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days before I was at Mattel. And so when it
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finally came time and the former director design left or
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was let go, and it was my turn up, Larry
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and four of the guys, not knowing that I've been
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recruited to do that. Larry and four other guys went
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to John Handy, was the big boss, said Hey, we
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know who we want to be our boss. It's this
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guy who stuck over the Disney division. He's a car guy.
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So my claim to fame, if there is one, I
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got recruited by Larry Wood to be his boss. Nice,
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but I say the same thing we all know we
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worked for Larry Well.
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Act with more die cast breakdown after this word from
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00:12:17.559 --> 00:12:23.519
our sponsors. Legendary Hollywood concept artist and designer Fireball Tim
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Lawrence has created three exclusive pieces of automotive art based
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on the three hosts of die Cast Breakdown. Get these
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and other brilliant designs printed on mugs and more at
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Fireball tim Garage dot r today.
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Cast Heads Magazine is a digital publication dedicated to enhancing
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the lives of connectors all across the world by providing
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00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:47.840
information on new models, for views on brands and die
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00:12:47.879 --> 00:12:52.679
cast accessories like figures and dioramas, throwing light on customizers,
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00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:55.799
photographers and people who contribute to making the die cast
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00:12:55.919 --> 00:12:59.799
world vibrant. Subscribe to cast Heads for free and look
266
00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:07.799
for collaborations with Diecast Media Network at casttheadsmagazine dot com.
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00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:07.759
And now back to Diecast Breakdown.
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Well, yeah, because he carried that place for what twenty
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years pretty.
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Much, there was about an eight to twelve year period
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where he was the only designer. He did the packaging,
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the instructions, the marketing, he put together the assembly instructions.
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He was a one man band in probably mid to
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late seventies through early eighties. He was the guy.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, Larry's great guy, one of my greatest friends. We
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do a lot of stuff together. He's just a great guy.
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We loved having him on the show. He was very
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gracious to join us, and yeah, so many great stories
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and you know all the stuff that I grew up with.
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You know that he was really into like the crackups
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and his Force stuff that he did in the nineties
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that he was really excited about. He was like, hey,
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you know what that is. And I was like, I
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still have my entire set of key Force that he
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you know, that was like so cool. But yeah, so
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so you're doing all this, you have this kind of
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long stretch of medical stuff, but you also were you
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were doing kind of hot rod stuff on the side,
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like you said.
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So, yeah, build a cage.
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And is that when you were working with like ed
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Roth or was that kind of.
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The Ed Roth thing was an interestry story when I
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was a kid hanging around the shops ed Roth had been.
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It's a great story. And I love to correct Ed Roth.
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He's passed away, and I'll tell you a story about
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what a great mentor he was. But I used to
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always correct his stories because there was not a shootout
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at May and May would bill that there was not
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machine guns on top of the building. It is true,
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though his son's worst question to work there, and we're
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told not to go to school. Then they'll tell those stories.
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But Ed got kicked out of the city of bell
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just because he was a nuisance. And so for a
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short period of time when Jewels, who was called the
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night Striper, was serving time in a local facility for
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some behaviors, Ed went into his shop, which was on
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Lake Boulevard and ran the shop for about a year
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and a half. So I would ride my bike down
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there and hang out with Ed. And back in those days,
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I didn't it's a long story and we'll go into
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this park. But it's a kid. I was kind of insecure.
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My dad died early. It was kind of a bad situation,
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and there's a lot of mojo around that. And I
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would hang out and watch Ed work. And on the
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third day, fourth day, he said, you know, kid, you
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don't talk much. You need to talk. That's how people
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get along, we communicate. He goes, I'll go first. You know,
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my name's Ed. I like, go, okay, my name's My
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nickname was Quirky. So he said, well, let's talk about something.
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He had really weird ideas about flying saucers coming from
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inner Earth, but he could back it up with facts.
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I mean, he was just very obtues. So he basically said,
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what's the one thing you don't like about yourself? And
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I'm thinking, and he said, I'll go first. I got
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big hands. It's like trying to pinstripe with weld. He
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mits on, and I got a big nose. It's in
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the room a half hour before me. And he says, okay,
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go And I'm like twelve. I mean, at twelve years old,
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there's not much any kid likes about himself, right. I go, well,
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I'm short, I come from a weird family, and I
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got a weird name. He goes, well, what's wrong with Corky?
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I said, now, my real name is Carson. And I'll
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never get He was putting trim on the top of
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the Druid Princess, which was this coronation coach hot rod
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and it was kind of a pearl white and airbrush pink,
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and he's doing a little bit of gold leaf on there.
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And he stopped and he looked at me and goes,
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what's wrong with I said, one name is Carson. He stops,
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he looks at me, goes, Dezzy, cool name. He goes, oh, man.
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He goes, that's one day you're gonna be known because
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your name is different. I said, look, I just want
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to be a Bob or a Joe or a Fred
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and he laughs. He goes, take me as an example.
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I'm a grown man and I draw monsters for a living.
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He said, normalcy is mediocrity, It's okay to be different,
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and as silly as it sounds at twelve years old
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at that time, that's exactly what I needed to hear.
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So years later, when I worked with Ed at Hot Wheels,
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bringing him back in was a real treat. Was really
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and I used to go to the moon Eyes and
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the rat Fink reunions at Kimi and Ed's back in
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the days. I always brought panels and did pin striping
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there and would see Ed there. Ed got straightened away,
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straightened up, layer in life. You know, tricks you really got.
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He found religion, good guy. And I got to spend
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a whole week with him at Siema and bring him
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back into the Hot Wheels clan, which was great because
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he said he'd never come back.
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I love the story about your name, Carson. I mean,
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did it ever dawn on you that you get cars
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in your name.
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Well, here's a funny yeah, cars Son, I mean it's
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only appropriate. One of the logos I've done is is
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the Sun, and in the middle is a silhouette of
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my car, So car Son.
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So yeah, just for fun, well played, well played.
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Yeah, just so yeah. I say it's appropriate now, but
370
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at the time, I mean, he got it. So I
371
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was born in fifty two, everybody was named Bob, Mike, Joe, Fred,
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Dad's worked in narrow space for the shipyards. Mom stayed
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home with an apron on made made brownies and cookies.
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My family and everything about us was so different that
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Ed's It sounds corny, but Ed's talked to me that
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day really made a difference in how I looked at things.
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Carson. We we love and we have just fell in
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love with a lot of the stories that you can tell,
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and it comes from a life dedicated to whatever you're
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working on at the time, with passion and all the
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good stuff innovated, all that good stuff. I want to
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hear as much as you care to share about a
383
00:17:50.839 --> 00:17:54.680
story that we've talked about a little bit where Mattel
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Hot Wheels could have been on the on the cutting
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edge of bringing the customized car culture to diecast and
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as much as you recall about those days late nineties,
387
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early two thousands, what would you like to share? And
388
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I don't know, just from someone who was in the room,
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that we don't always get that perspective.
390
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It was an interesting dynamic. It's so I teach you
391
00:18:19.799 --> 00:18:21.720
the university been teaching off and on, and I always
392
00:18:21.759 --> 00:18:24.160
tell students this is design. I teach a medical product
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design class. I teach a methodology class. I'm involved a
394
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couple committees and the state committee. And I always tell
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students when they're first out of school, it almost doesn't
396
00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:33.799
matter what career you're in. But the message is this,
397
00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:36.000
when you first start, either work for a really really
398
00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:38.480
big company or work for a really really small company.
399
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If you get stuck in the middle, you don't understand scale.
400
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So the analogy is in a small business, you do
401
00:18:44.359 --> 00:18:46.279
everything because you've got to do it. You have multiple jobs.
402
00:18:46.279 --> 00:18:48.119
You do multiple jobs because need to be done, and
403
00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:50.240
a big one. You don't dare touch somebody else's job
404
00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:52.079
because I'll say, that's my job, what are you doing?
405
00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:56.039
Mattel was the latter. It's a billion dollar company and
406
00:18:56.079 --> 00:18:59.440
sometimes they acted like it. So my argument when I
407
00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:02.559
came on was I looked at the collector lineup, I
408
00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:04.759
looked at what was going on. So I ran the
409
00:19:04.759 --> 00:19:07.960
collector site. First. We had all the collector cars, we
410
00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:11.799
had Formula one, NASCAR, some of the early monster trucks,
411
00:19:11.799 --> 00:19:14.640
some of the customs, but we weren't really representing car
412
00:19:14.759 --> 00:19:18.799
culture in an accurate way. And my goal always was
413
00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:25.039
what sometimes slang called edutainment, entertainment through education. I wanted
414
00:19:25.079 --> 00:19:28.240
to teach kids physics. I wanted to teach kids design
415
00:19:28.359 --> 00:19:32.079
and design trends and and form and function and engineering
416
00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:34.400
through hot wheels. And I thought we could do it.
417
00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:37.599
So we used to bring in all kinds of really
418
00:19:37.640 --> 00:19:41.599
cool ideas for cars and segments of cars, like a
419
00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:44.000
pinstriping series, Old writer series, which they've all done later,
420
00:19:44.599 --> 00:19:46.920
not because of me, just finally organically happened, or maybe
421
00:19:46.920 --> 00:19:48.960
I prodded them enough and they finally did it. I
422
00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:51.039
wanted to do a whole series of the indie winners
423
00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:53.640
and segment them by the early cars, the Miller cars,
424
00:19:54.039 --> 00:19:56.920
the Foyd cars, the Offee cars, the dan Gery here,
425
00:19:57.000 --> 00:19:59.720
and I wanted to use these to teach history, not
426
00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:02.480
just about cars, but like when the engines went to
427
00:20:02.519 --> 00:20:04.079
the back of the car. We're part of the suspension.
428
00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:06.200
How did that work? You know when the Miller four
429
00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:08.000
wheel drive fort wheel drive cars? How did that work?
430
00:20:08.039 --> 00:20:09.839
And I wanted to use these things. Is you know,
431
00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:13.079
passionate little fun things you put in your hand. So
432
00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:15.759
you could tell from this conversation I am prone to
433
00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:18.000
getting a little lamped up. So I made a big
434
00:20:18.039 --> 00:20:20.960
presentation in the boardroom one day about design and hot
435
00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:22.720
wheels or where I thought hot wheel should be going.
436
00:20:23.839 --> 00:20:27.200
And I famously said something along the lines of we're
437
00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:28.799
not a toy company, and they all laughed at me.
438
00:20:28.920 --> 00:20:30.720
Of course, we're a toy companies. We're not a toy company.
439
00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:32.400
We're a car company. In fact, one of the world's
440
00:20:32.440 --> 00:20:35.559
coolest car company, and later that was used in marketing.
441
00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:38.559
Larry and I coined that term together. But I said,
442
00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:40.920
we should act as if we're a car company, like
443
00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:43.880
everything we do is the barometer of cool, Like nobody
444
00:20:43.880 --> 00:20:45.599
would want to drive a ferrag if they could drive
445
00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:47.720
a hot Wheels almost like that, And that's how kids
446
00:20:47.759 --> 00:20:50.759
really felt. So I'll save you the long speech, but
447
00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:52.880
the key parts of the speech were every eight year
448
00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:55.519
old boy wants what an eighteen year old young man
449
00:20:55.640 --> 00:20:59.000
has that the dad wants his son to know how
450
00:20:59.039 --> 00:21:01.440
to throw a curveball and change oil in a spare tire.
451
00:21:01.960 --> 00:21:05.839
There as certain transferable things between you know, dads and
452
00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:08.680
sons and even daughters. My two daughters are hot rod kids.
453
00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:12.440
It's not limited to just one one side of the
454
00:21:12.759 --> 00:21:16.039
formula there. And so I went into this big passionate
455
00:21:16.039 --> 00:21:18.359
speech about how we should be doing more and how
456
00:21:18.359 --> 00:21:20.359
we could do more, and how the car culture was
457
00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:22.400
going past us and we weren't really staying relevant and
458
00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:26.039
some of the cars were just frankly almost developing too.
459
00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:28.200
And it's been argued back and forth that they almost
460
00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:29.839
became like a shut up toy, like when you get
461
00:21:29.880 --> 00:21:31.839
candy at the checkout stand at the grocery store. You
462
00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:33.000
buy it for your kid to be quiet, and they
463
00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:35.480
weren't really carrying culture. And I was like arguing against that,
464
00:21:35.599 --> 00:21:38.680
like it's okay to do fantasy things, but we have
465
00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:41.160
a bigger role here. So I went into my big
466
00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:44.799
speech about us being the Ruld's coolest car culture company
467
00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:46.839
and all these things we should be doing and got done.
468
00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:50.240
And my counterparty was they had of marketing, said well, great,
469
00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:52.640
thanks Carson, very impassioned speech. Now, mind you, this is
470
00:21:52.680 --> 00:21:56.359
in the boardroom with Bob Becker, who's the CEO, Tom Debarowski,
471
00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:58.680
who's the second in command, who's a big car guy.
472
00:21:58.720 --> 00:22:02.240
And I think I have the audience. And my counterpart says, now,
473
00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:05.759
that's just the opinion of a designer moving forward. And
474
00:22:05.799 --> 00:22:08.559
I said, whoa wait, stop, And I'm in a bordroom.
475
00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:10.480
It's supposed to be some formality and some decorum. And
476
00:22:10.759 --> 00:22:13.920
I'm like, I'm insulted. And I don't do well because
477
00:22:13.960 --> 00:22:17.519
of my childhood. I know, the psychology being premid. You know,
478
00:22:17.799 --> 00:22:20.480
I still have those scars. I don't do well when
479
00:22:20.519 --> 00:22:22.759
i'm either to when they try to a shame me
480
00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:24.359
or make fun of me, or little me, or be
481
00:22:24.519 --> 00:22:27.119
little me, or nominalize my opinion. I don't do well
482
00:22:27.160 --> 00:22:29.680
in those situations. I said, what are you saying? I said,
483
00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:31.839
don't limit me to just because I'm a car guy,
484
00:22:31.880 --> 00:22:33.400
that I can't be smart. I can't no physics, I
485
00:22:33.400 --> 00:22:35.519
can't no math, I got no marketing. You know, we're
486
00:22:35.559 --> 00:22:37.519
defined by what we tried. That's why do we put
487
00:22:37.559 --> 00:22:39.079
wheels and tires on a car when we don't get
488
00:22:39.079 --> 00:22:40.559
to see it. Everybody else does, why do we make
489
00:22:40.599 --> 00:22:42.279
these changes? I made all these metaphors, and I said,
490
00:22:42.279 --> 00:22:44.160
so we're defined by what we drive? All go into detail.
491
00:22:44.200 --> 00:22:45.880
I told him the car I drove, a ninety six
492
00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:48.599
and Paula all the stuff I'd done to it and suspension, wheels,
493
00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:51.480
motor stuff, and knowing because he parked next to me
494
00:22:51.480 --> 00:22:53.599
in the parking structure what he drove. I said, well, Jim,
495
00:22:53.640 --> 00:22:56.480
what do you drive? And he wouldn't answer. I said, Jim,
496
00:22:56.559 --> 00:22:58.599
come on, we're to find bar car and he wouldn't answer.
497
00:22:58.599 --> 00:23:00.319
I said, well, just for the record, guys, he drives
498
00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:03.519
a SOB convertible. And then I said, I arrest my case.
499
00:23:04.119 --> 00:23:06.920
So as much as it was entertaining in a corporate
500
00:23:06.920 --> 00:23:09.359
setting to have a little forvality, a little little you know,
501
00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:13.880
gainsmanship and poking at each other, it wasn't generally appreciated
502
00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:16.920
by all. One of the upper execs said, that's the
503
00:23:16.920 --> 00:23:18.599
funniest thing I've ever heard that. I never want to
504
00:23:18.640 --> 00:23:19.920
hear you say it again. You got to have a
505
00:23:19.920 --> 00:23:23.920
little But to the point of car culture, no disrespect.
506
00:23:23.960 --> 00:23:25.839
The marketing guys are different. Then I can only speak
507
00:23:25.839 --> 00:23:27.359
to a few. There was a couple of good guys there,
508
00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:29.359
but for the most part they weren't really doing marketing.
509
00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:32.720
They were taking orders. We went to car shows and
510
00:23:32.759 --> 00:23:35.039
events because it was our passion. They went because they
511
00:23:35.079 --> 00:23:37.720
had to. I will tell you a story just to
512
00:23:38.119 --> 00:23:40.039
accentuate the point. I can tell you tons of these.
513
00:23:40.680 --> 00:23:43.319
The last year we had Richard Petty in NASCAR, when
514
00:23:43.319 --> 00:23:46.920
when Kyle was driving, Adam was still alive. It was
515
00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:51.880
at Fontana at the Big Speedway, and I saw Richard
516
00:23:51.880 --> 00:23:53.880
and I said, and I kind of worked. I wasn't
517
00:23:53.880 --> 00:23:55.759
in marketing, but because I was a car guy and
518
00:23:55.799 --> 00:23:57.640
I knew these guys, they kind of used me as
519
00:23:57.680 --> 00:24:00.680
the speaking person to speak car language to him. The
520
00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:02.920
one guy called me the car whisper, you know. I
521
00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:05.359
would talk to him. And then most of the NASCAR
522
00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:07.359
guys didn't do well with our marketing guys anyway. I mean,
523
00:24:07.400 --> 00:24:09.400
they're cut from different cloths, you know, They're just different guys.
524
00:24:10.039 --> 00:24:11.440
So I saw Richard, I said, Richard, I want to
525
00:24:11.480 --> 00:24:13.119
thank you for the six years he's had a great run.
526
00:24:13.160 --> 00:24:15.440
You know, guys have been great for our brand. At
527
00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:17.000
one point we have all four of them at the
528
00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:20.599
design center, Lee, Richard, Kyle, and Adam. All four which
529
00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:23.240
was awesome, And I said, if you don't mind, we're
530
00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:24.799
up in the suite. Would you come up one last
531
00:24:24.799 --> 00:24:27.160
time and just say thanks and goodbye to the guys.
532
00:24:27.240 --> 00:24:29.559
He goes, Ah, Carson, you know I don't do well
533
00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:31.680
with your marketing guys. I said, Look, it's a big deal.
534
00:24:31.960 --> 00:24:33.319
It would mean a lot to mean Larry if you
535
00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:35.279
would do that. He goes, I'll come, but I'm coming
536
00:24:35.319 --> 00:24:39.240
for you. I'm not. And because Richard had had some
537
00:24:40.200 --> 00:24:43.039
arguments about how they were marketing and supporting, which I
538
00:24:43.119 --> 00:24:45.799
thought fundamentally were correct. But again, it's a big company.
539
00:24:45.799 --> 00:24:49.680
They do it their way right. So Richard comes up.
540
00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:53.680
He opens the door. He's got his hat and sunglasses on.
541
00:24:54.559 --> 00:24:57.400
The marketing guys are all watching the Lakers game, and
542
00:24:57.440 --> 00:24:59.680
he goes, hey, boys, how's it going want in marketing
543
00:24:59.720 --> 00:25:01.920
guys as well. We're down by two. Kobe's about ready
544
00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:04.599
to file out. Richard looks at me and goes, Carson,
545
00:25:04.680 --> 00:25:06.680
did I talk to you outside? I'm like, oh, man,
546
00:25:06.960 --> 00:25:10.880
I'm gonna get a butt reading from Richard. It's outside.
547
00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:13.160
He goes, Now, you know I don't want to do this.
548
00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:15.720
I'll see you later, and that was it. I walked
549
00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:17.119
back in, they go, who is that guy?
550
00:25:17.720 --> 00:25:17.960
Good?
551
00:25:18.039 --> 00:25:21.400
Lord, you guys, mister the King, just the most winning
552
00:25:21.480 --> 00:25:24.240
NASCAR driver, the guy whose name's on the car. Oh oh,
553
00:25:24.279 --> 00:25:28.480
that was him. I'm like, guys, you're killing me. It's
554
00:25:28.599 --> 00:25:31.480
just just the guy we sponsor, that's all. So when
555
00:25:31.480 --> 00:25:33.920
I see him at the die cast show or a
556
00:25:34.079 --> 00:25:36.720
Sema and stuff, he always brings that up. He's like,
557
00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:40.519
how are your friends of marketing King? You're gonna never
558
00:25:40.599 --> 00:25:42.079
let me forget that, are you.
559
00:25:42.200 --> 00:25:42.440
Yeah?
560
00:25:42.519 --> 00:25:46.240
And I'm not trying to be unkin, but they just
561
00:25:47.240 --> 00:25:50.160
there's a couple of exceptions. They just weren't They weren't
562
00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:51.960
wired that way. Like I said, we went to car
563
00:25:51.960 --> 00:25:55.519
events because it was our passion. They went because they
564
00:25:55.559 --> 00:26:01.759
had to. And I'd rather build a business from intelligence
565
00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:04.279
and knowledge can be learned, and generally passion is a
566
00:26:04.279 --> 00:26:06.640
greater transfer of that. You know, you learn faster through
567
00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:09.359
passion than you do if you're not passionate. And I
568
00:26:09.400 --> 00:26:11.000
got I don't want to make fun of the guys.
569
00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:12.440
I mean I left in two thousand and five, so
570
00:26:12.519 --> 00:26:15.240
most of Martyman there. I'll save names to protect the innocent.
571
00:26:15.720 --> 00:26:19.799
Yeah, Oh my gosh, I can't imagine not completely lose
572
00:26:19.880 --> 00:26:24.400
that my Valiant is painted petty blue, like, oh nice, Yeah,
573
00:26:24.519 --> 00:26:28.559
it's so I just, oh, my gosh, that would be
574
00:26:28.920 --> 00:26:31.559
like that's one of my life goals is to meet
575
00:26:31.640 --> 00:26:33.240
him and have him sign the dashboard.
576
00:26:33.720 --> 00:26:37.400
He is the consummate gentleman. He reminds me so much
577
00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:40.599
of Don Perdome, who was always focused and serious about
578
00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:43.160
raising dogsbit a friend since I was twelve when we
579
00:26:43.240 --> 00:26:46.799
lost Adam. Here's this funny side story. When we lost Adam,
580
00:26:46.880 --> 00:26:49.359
I was staying after on Friday to get some work done.
581
00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:51.400
I literally, this is the craziest thing you talk. I
582
00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:53.480
get chills talking about it. I was working on a
583
00:26:53.480 --> 00:26:55.440
transporter for Adam. He's getting ready to make the move
584
00:26:55.519 --> 00:26:58.759
up from his sprint car from Bush up to and
585
00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:01.039
we were doing concepts for and I had a transporter
586
00:27:01.079 --> 00:27:02.519
in my hand, and I printed some materials on a
587
00:27:02.519 --> 00:27:04.680
printer and I'm I'm cutting with the exacto knife, and
588
00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:06.799
I'm putting some spray mask on the back of it
589
00:27:06.920 --> 00:27:08.319
or spray mout in the back of it to make
590
00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:11.559
these things. I get the call from Tony in our
591
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:14.440
NASCAR office in Charlotte, and he was at the track
592
00:27:14.480 --> 00:27:16.079
and he said cars I got some really bad news.
593
00:27:16.079 --> 00:27:18.400
I go, what happened to? Kaine said, we just lost Adam.
594
00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:21.319
I go, oh my gosh, I go, Tony, I'm holding
595
00:27:21.319 --> 00:27:24.519
his transporter in my hand. So I sent those to
596
00:27:24.559 --> 00:27:27.119
them with along with some other prototypes and our wishes
597
00:27:27.119 --> 00:27:30.359
and Adam really well, here's another funny story. When we
598
00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:33.039
had all four of them at the Mattel headquarters, they
599
00:27:33.079 --> 00:27:36.400
were mucking and teasing Kyle about having a provisional start again,
600
00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:39.599
and Richard says, well, I don't think it's any secret
601
00:27:39.599 --> 00:27:41.960
that driving Gene might have just skipped the generation in
602
00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:45.440
our family. Ooh, Kyle's like, I'd rather play the guitar.
603
00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:48.759
Don't touch the dial. Die Cast Breakdown will be right
604
00:27:48.799 --> 00:27:52.759
back after these messages. Die Cast Breakdown is produced in
605
00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:56.680
partnership with twice die Cast and Driven Dreams. Or go
606
00:27:56.720 --> 00:28:00.079
on YouTube, check out their channels in the video discrip
607
00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:03.400
and subscribe for more epic die cast content.
608
00:28:03.799 --> 00:28:08.039
Hey, this is Larry Wood, Sami Boiling from Kilowheels dot Com.
609
00:28:07.799 --> 00:28:10.480
Derek from Honest that Can It is Eddie Cathrow chattering
610
00:28:10.559 --> 00:28:11.279
from Rown two.
611
00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:12.759
And Mike from guest Lands.
612
00:28:12.519 --> 00:28:14.400
And Christina Albert from Hotwand.
613
00:28:14.039 --> 00:28:17.000
This is Champion, DJK, Darrell Lee from Jada Toys, Christine
614
00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:19.720
Brown with Hobby, dB is, Jim Kaigs.
615
00:28:20.799 --> 00:28:23.759
Dude yeall is Jerry Wayne Longmer and you're watching die
616
00:28:23.799 --> 00:28:25.200
Cast Breakdown.
617
00:28:30.359 --> 00:28:33.640
And now the thrilling conclusion of this week's episode of
618
00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:35.000
die Cast Breakdown.
619
00:28:35.720 --> 00:28:38.640
If you could give any advice to kids that are
620
00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:42.720
you know, growing up right now, no specific age group,
621
00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:47.400
but I would say under eighteen that are trying to
622
00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:51.200
get into the car industry or the design industry. I
623
00:28:51.240 --> 00:28:53.559
know you've had a lot of years of experience. What
624
00:28:53.559 --> 00:28:56.119
would be your best advice for them to kind of
625
00:28:56.599 --> 00:29:00.240
follow their dreams and maybe the best routes TEAMO want
626
00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:00.359
to be.
627
00:29:00.920 --> 00:29:03.559
As I mentioned earlier, it really has to start with passion.
628
00:29:04.319 --> 00:29:07.400
You know, if they're not passionate about it, they won't
629
00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:09.240
spend the extra hours, they won't do the extra time.
630
00:29:09.319 --> 00:29:11.759
So if they're passionate about it, you know, work taught.
631
00:29:11.839 --> 00:29:13.240
So I was going to become a doctor. You know,
632
00:29:13.319 --> 00:29:14.720
the last thing I think I needed to be was
633
00:29:14.759 --> 00:29:16.960
a doctor, a lawyer, or you know, a scientist. We
634
00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:18.559
really I probably would not have been happy. I might
635
00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:21.160
have been successful, but like my family doctor, come me later.
636
00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:22.720
You're smart enough to become a doctor, but you're not
637
00:29:22.759 --> 00:29:24.720
wired that way. You don't work for the sake of work.
638
00:29:24.720 --> 00:29:26.559
You work for the sake of enjoyment. You can work
639
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:29.240
for the sake of work, but that's drudgery, right it is.
640
00:29:29.599 --> 00:29:33.039
And so my first advice would be follow your passion.
641
00:29:33.039 --> 00:29:35.960
If it's cars, follow it. Do as much as you can,
642
00:29:36.319 --> 00:29:38.400
and don't just work in one niche try to spread out.
643
00:29:38.400 --> 00:29:40.440
If you like law writers, maybe go to a truck
644
00:29:40.440 --> 00:29:42.400
show and just see what the similarities are, the pros
645
00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:45.839
and cons, the comparison contrasts, and understand how certain threads
646
00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:48.839
of automotive culture weave through all aspects of automotive. So
647
00:29:48.839 --> 00:29:52.599
between JDM, law writers, boxter trucks, stractures, there's always similarities between.
648
00:29:52.839 --> 00:29:54.720
They all have wheels, they all got engines, they all
649
00:29:54.720 --> 00:29:57.279
got drive shafts for the most part. They might they
650
00:29:57.319 --> 00:30:00.119
got paint exactly and do that. And then one of
651
00:30:00.119 --> 00:30:03.359
the thing is spend more time with your hands in
652
00:30:03.359 --> 00:30:05.319
your mind and not your thumbs and fingers on a
653
00:30:05.480 --> 00:30:07.680
on a device. I mean, because so many kids are
654
00:30:07.720 --> 00:30:08.880
on devices.
655
00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:12.720
Now again, so important use.
656
00:30:12.599 --> 00:30:15.880
More time with your mind in your hands and arms
657
00:30:15.880 --> 00:30:18.279
and not just your fingertips and thumbs on a device
658
00:30:18.839 --> 00:30:22.599
because devices are intoxic. So you look at the psychology
659
00:30:22.599 --> 00:30:24.240
of it, and I have some psychology background, of course,
660
00:30:24.240 --> 00:30:26.480
some pre med is it. It feeds that frontal lobe,
661
00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:30.680
that instantaneous, that subconscious, and that it starts exactly. It
662
00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:32.960
causes that excitement, the noise, the color of the action.
663
00:30:33.160 --> 00:30:36.319
You're in control of things. You know, we tell stupid
664
00:30:36.319 --> 00:30:37.960
stories because we used to be kids. Is you know,
665
00:30:38.279 --> 00:30:41.480
when I got a Lindsey or a match box or
666
00:30:41.519 --> 00:30:43.799
a core Gear Tootsy toy, the first thing I did
667
00:30:43.880 --> 00:30:45.920
was I realized to add two toys of the same car,
668
00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:47.880
the car that came in the box and the box
669
00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:49.839
itself of the picture of the car. So I would
670
00:30:49.839 --> 00:30:51.079
get out of the ground and play with a bolt
671
00:30:51.119 --> 00:30:52.720
like they were real. You know, we used to call
672
00:30:52.720 --> 00:30:54.720
it donky doinket, being on the ground a donkey doink Well,
673
00:30:54.799 --> 00:30:58.480
kids don't do that anymore. And I think that play pattern,
674
00:30:58.599 --> 00:31:02.119
that psychology, that play pattern is definitely good for boys.
675
00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:06.359
My boss of hotel called them emotional triggers. I can control,
676
00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:08.319
I can wreck, I can go fast, I can fly,
677
00:31:08.839 --> 00:31:11.480
I can save, I can rescue. You can do these
678
00:31:11.480 --> 00:31:14.559
things through hot wheels become a talisman or a touchstone
679
00:31:14.599 --> 00:31:16.319
that allows you to do things, just like a barbie
680
00:31:16.319 --> 00:31:17.920
that's done as an astronot makes a girl thinks she
681
00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:20.559
could be an astro. Nothing wrong with that. It's aspirational,
682
00:31:20.559 --> 00:31:23.480
which is a big part. So back to fundamentals. I
683
00:31:23.480 --> 00:31:27.039
think I wish cars were simpler because in my day,
684
00:31:27.359 --> 00:31:28.960
you know, I could take stuff apart, and I used
685
00:31:28.960 --> 00:31:30.480
to take apart watch this and see if I could
686
00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:31.920
put them back together and make them work. And it
687
00:31:31.960 --> 00:31:34.279
took me about ten times till I finally accomplished that
688
00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:36.319
because you know, I realized you got to pay attention
689
00:31:36.359 --> 00:31:40.960
to what you're doing, very delicate. I think this is
690
00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:43.680
why plumbers and electricians are so expensive right now, because
691
00:31:43.720 --> 00:31:47.039
nobody wants to do those jobs. I'm a big fan
692
00:31:47.079 --> 00:31:49.279
of micro You know, not everybody has to go to college.
693
00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:52.279
It's good. But the advice to kids was follow the passion.
694
00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:54.160
Try to work with your hands as much as you
695
00:31:54.200 --> 00:31:58.079
can of one of two reasons if you will learn
696
00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:00.400
it and become intoxicated by it and become a career.
697
00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:03.440
Each a mechanic, a carpenter, bricklay or whatever it is,
698
00:32:03.599 --> 00:32:07.519
or number two, just as valuable, to understand the value
699
00:32:07.519 --> 00:32:09.720
of the guys who do that, to understand why they
700
00:32:09.720 --> 00:32:13.400
get paid what they do, and to limit this thinking
701
00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:16.400
of a hierarchy of occupations. Because he's a doctor, Oh
702
00:32:16.400 --> 00:32:19.480
my gosh, he must really be something. No, he's a doctor,
703
00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:21.279
and for the most part, to be a good doctor,
704
00:32:21.279 --> 00:32:25.680
you got to know two things, three things actually math Latin,
705
00:32:26.039 --> 00:32:28.759
and have a good memory. And if he can get
706
00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:30.559
those three things down, you're probably going to survive as
707
00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:33.440
a doctor. And I'm not trying to be facetious to
708
00:32:33.480 --> 00:32:37.519
my friends in medicine, but it mothers me that we've
709
00:32:37.559 --> 00:32:42.279
limited career choices for kids by societal pressures in image
710
00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:45.880
and so I'd like to see more kids, you know,
711
00:32:46.839 --> 00:32:49.039
falling through vocational things. I'd like to see more kids
712
00:32:49.079 --> 00:32:52.920
in industrial design. AI is always a threat to that.
713
00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:55.599
But yeah, to summarize, you follow your passion, work with
714
00:32:55.640 --> 00:32:58.400
your hands, not just your head. Find something to take apart,
715
00:32:58.480 --> 00:33:01.279
put back together, go to car shows, go to events,
716
00:33:01.319 --> 00:33:03.440
whatever it is, go out there. And a big thing
717
00:33:03.519 --> 00:33:06.440
is talk to people in the field. I was very
718
00:33:06.480 --> 00:33:09.119
fortunate to be mentored by some really guys that I
719
00:33:09.119 --> 00:33:11.240
look back at it now is like two things I
720
00:33:11.240 --> 00:33:14.559
didn't realize I was walking with giants. And number two,
721
00:33:16.039 --> 00:33:19.079
what was it that did God just put these special
722
00:33:19.119 --> 00:33:20.680
people in front of me? Or was I just a
723
00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:23.160
really needy kid? And probably the answer a little bit
724
00:33:23.160 --> 00:33:26.440
of both. So that's a long answer to a short question.
725
00:33:26.519 --> 00:33:30.160
Sorry, No, that's a great it's a great answer to
726
00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:33.799
the question because the one thing I see in my field,
727
00:33:33.799 --> 00:33:37.799
which is cars, is there's no one doing pin striping anymore.
728
00:33:37.880 --> 00:33:40.680
I can't find anybody to do that. There's barely anybody
729
00:33:40.720 --> 00:33:44.119
building engines. There's machine shops are becoming I'm not a
730
00:33:44.680 --> 00:33:49.240
Oh yeah, custom paints becoming not a thing. And I
731
00:33:49.359 --> 00:33:50.160
see this stuff.
732
00:33:49.960 --> 00:33:52.839
Every day and I and I'm that worries me.
733
00:33:53.119 --> 00:33:56.799
Because it's a dying art, a lot of it custom paint,
734
00:33:56.960 --> 00:34:01.640
pin striping, engine building, hot rods. It's becoming so expensive
735
00:34:01.680 --> 00:34:04.640
and a lot of people don't necessarily know what they're doing,
736
00:34:04.680 --> 00:34:07.519
and they don't have the right mentors that yeah, there's
737
00:34:07.559 --> 00:34:09.440
not a lot of time left for some of these
738
00:34:09.519 --> 00:34:11.360
kids to learn this stuff because a lot of these
739
00:34:11.400 --> 00:34:12.679
mentors are passing away.
740
00:34:13.159 --> 00:34:15.239
And I can tell you stories about that, about when
741
00:34:15.239 --> 00:34:17.039
it really changed. So, I mean, if you were here
742
00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:18.599
in my office you'd see all my drafting cable. I
743
00:34:18.599 --> 00:34:20.519
got a bunch of skate decks on lettering and pinstriping,
744
00:34:20.559 --> 00:34:22.079
and some gold leaf. I just did some signs for
745
00:34:22.079 --> 00:34:24.639
a Christmas display. I got my fish on the wall.
746
00:34:24.639 --> 00:34:26.400
I mean, I've been doing lettering and graphics forever. And
747
00:34:26.440 --> 00:34:28.000
it's kind of my friends that know me from the
748
00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:31.000
science and medical field go what you do? What My
749
00:34:31.079 --> 00:34:34.159
one buddy said, You're like a nuclear sub operator and
750
00:34:34.199 --> 00:34:35.840
a plumber at the same time. But well, there's a
751
00:34:35.840 --> 00:34:38.960
crossover between that, you know, there's that, But as I
752
00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:41.960
mentioned earlier, that was my health in that. But yeah,
753
00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:46.519
it's it's interesting because I was doing lettering and painting
754
00:34:46.519 --> 00:34:49.760
as a hobby in a business when vinyl first came out,
755
00:34:49.800 --> 00:34:52.800
like vinyl cutting machines, and everybody jumped to that because
756
00:34:52.800 --> 00:34:54.519
it was fast and easy. But you only had a
757
00:34:54.519 --> 00:34:56.840
certain number of fonts and styles in the Gerber file
758
00:34:56.920 --> 00:34:59.719
and the Gerber alphabet. And then in three to five
759
00:34:59.800 --> 00:35:01.440
years the signs all looked like craft because they were
760
00:35:01.480 --> 00:35:04.079
repealing and the ADHESI was hanging all over and then
761
00:35:04.119 --> 00:35:07.079
all of a sudden, of all things, a resurgence and
762
00:35:07.079 --> 00:35:09.559
an old school sign paint. He started happening. Guys were
763
00:35:09.559 --> 00:35:12.880
coming out of retirement charging twice what they used to charge.
764
00:35:13.719 --> 00:35:16.239
And now, like gold leaf airbrush pins driping your right,
765
00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:19.000
it's harder and harder to find. There's a few really,
766
00:35:19.039 --> 00:35:21.480
really good guys, but they're getting older. And the other
767
00:35:21.519 --> 00:35:24.280
guy that mentored me talked about Kenny Youngblood. I always
768
00:35:24.280 --> 00:35:27.440
tell my Kenny young Blood story. Kenny was an automotive artist,
769
00:35:28.119 --> 00:35:30.159
did all the paints and graphics on the funny cars
770
00:35:30.159 --> 00:35:33.039
on the East Coast, where at the circus circus on
771
00:35:33.079 --> 00:35:36.360
the East Coast was Jeff And I'm trying to get
772
00:35:36.400 --> 00:35:38.360
the guy's name who did all that work. And Berserkle
773
00:35:38.400 --> 00:35:40.000
Bob and all those guys hung out there. We had
774
00:35:40.039 --> 00:35:41.599
our own guys in the West Coast here with Kirby
775
00:35:41.639 --> 00:35:44.039
where Kenny worked, and so Kenny did the graphic designs,
776
00:35:44.679 --> 00:35:47.400
Kirby painting them, and Kenny did all the lettering. Kenny
777
00:35:47.480 --> 00:35:50.199
was notorious for being very self conscious about his lettering.
778
00:35:50.280 --> 00:35:52.519
He didn't he never considered himself a good lettering guy,
779
00:35:52.679 --> 00:35:55.639
although he's fantastic. So I rode my bike down. A
780
00:35:55.639 --> 00:35:57.840
friend of mine in high school was sending fiberglass bodies
781
00:35:57.880 --> 00:36:00.440
at Kirby's for two bucks a day, and I for
782
00:36:00.519 --> 00:36:03.039
three days stood around the corner and watched, much like
783
00:36:03.039 --> 00:36:06.599
I did with Ed Roth, watched Kenny letter the Barry Setzer.
784
00:36:06.760 --> 00:36:09.000
John Viterra built Vega sunny Car, one of the most
785
00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:11.320
successful funny cars going at the time. Pat Foster drove,
786
00:36:11.320 --> 00:36:13.679
and Pat drove everything. I watched him lay it out
787
00:36:13.719 --> 00:36:15.800
with Tabillo pencils. I watched him put the bass color down.
788
00:36:15.800 --> 00:36:17.920
I watched him do the airbrush wet on wet, I
789
00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:19.480
watched him do the outline. I watched him do the
790
00:36:19.519 --> 00:36:21.119
drop shadow. I watched him do the sponsor names. I
791
00:36:21.119 --> 00:36:22.639
watched him do the whole thing over three days, and
792
00:36:22.679 --> 00:36:26.599
I was just like mentally taking notes. And Kenny laughts
793
00:36:26.599 --> 00:36:29.639
when I tell him the story now on the third day.
794
00:36:29.719 --> 00:36:31.280
So the quantat it was like a quantit that there
795
00:36:31.280 --> 00:36:32.440
was a door at the back that I could kind
796
00:36:32.440 --> 00:36:34.719
of sneaker, you know, sneak around the corner and hide
797
00:36:34.719 --> 00:36:37.360
behind some cans and watch. And the big garage door
798
00:36:37.360 --> 00:36:39.400
was always pulled down when he lettered feel for dustin
799
00:36:39.519 --> 00:36:41.920
and air flowing through there. But also he was very private,
800
00:36:42.599 --> 00:36:44.599
so he said, you know, kid, you can stand there
801
00:36:44.599 --> 00:36:46.440
for three days. You can watch over my shoulder. He
802
00:36:46.480 --> 00:36:48.840
can pick up a rush and learn something. And I'm like,
803
00:36:48.840 --> 00:36:53.320
oh shit, he saw me. So he goes, that's not
804
00:36:53.320 --> 00:36:55.360
like I didn't see you, colon, You're not You're not invisible.
805
00:36:55.880 --> 00:36:57.440
And so he said, go over there and get the
806
00:36:57.480 --> 00:36:59.079
drag news back in the old days, and drag news
807
00:36:59.119 --> 00:37:00.840
you remember in the back, the last two pages were
808
00:37:00.880 --> 00:37:03.880
all the logos STP torco, all the big logos in
809
00:37:04.119 --> 00:37:07.039
like a checkerboard format. He goes, going to back there,
810
00:37:07.039 --> 00:37:09.119
the last couple of pages is the logos. Pick out
811
00:37:09.119 --> 00:37:11.119
a logo you like, there's a beating scrap metal over there.
812
00:37:11.159 --> 00:37:13.519
That's a Stabello pencil. Go over there and draw it
813
00:37:13.519 --> 00:37:15.360
a little bit and then paint it. So I look
814
00:37:15.400 --> 00:37:16.960
in the back and I decided to do the torco,
815
00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:19.360
which is they triangle with the torco across it, you know,
816
00:37:20.639 --> 00:37:22.039
And I'm drawing it on this thing and I don't
817
00:37:22.039 --> 00:37:24.119
even know what a Stabello pencil is. And I've tried to,
818
00:37:24.159 --> 00:37:25.599
you know, wipe it off, and he goes, kid, just
819
00:37:25.639 --> 00:37:27.280
lick your fingers. It goes, and I, you know, I
820
00:37:27.280 --> 00:37:30.000
had no idea Stabillo pencil was water solvent for doing layouts.
821
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:33.159
You know, and I start drawing it, and he's like,
822
00:37:33.239 --> 00:37:35.039
I could see he's just getting frustrated with you, like
823
00:37:35.039 --> 00:37:37.239
twenty feet away from he's finishing this car. You know,
824
00:37:37.280 --> 00:37:39.079
he's like, oh, this kid, why did they say anything
825
00:37:39.079 --> 00:37:40.440
to him? You know, it's like, yeah, I just see,
826
00:37:40.440 --> 00:37:43.119
you know, him getting frustrated. He goes, kid, you're gonna
827
00:37:43.119 --> 00:37:45.039
paint it. I didn't say draw it. Don't draw it.
828
00:37:45.320 --> 00:37:46.920
And then he showed me how to pull lines by
829
00:37:46.960 --> 00:37:50.039
pulling your hand across the bottom of the easel. And
830
00:37:50.079 --> 00:37:52.039
finally he says, okay, look, hang on, I'm almost done here.
831
00:37:52.079 --> 00:37:53.920
He says, look, here's five bucks. Go across the street
832
00:37:53.960 --> 00:37:56.199
and gets a couple of burgers. When you come back,
833
00:37:56.199 --> 00:37:57.679
you can clean my brushes. I'll teach you how to
834
00:37:57.679 --> 00:37:59.920
clean my brushes. I'll give you a real lettering lesson.
835
00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:01.920
So I went across the street, got some burgers. He
836
00:38:01.960 --> 00:38:03.519
was done. He showed me how to clean brushes, which
837
00:38:03.559 --> 00:38:05.880
I still clean brushes the Kenny Young bud Way, just
838
00:38:05.920 --> 00:38:07.800
like I still washed cars to Mickey Thompson Way. That's
839
00:38:07.840 --> 00:38:10.760
a story for later. Mickey talked to me all the
840
00:38:10.800 --> 00:38:13.400
way lost cars, and he gave me a proper lesson,
841
00:38:13.440 --> 00:38:15.280
and I showed up about two or three days, and
842
00:38:15.320 --> 00:38:17.159
then on like the fourth and fifth day, he was gone.
843
00:38:17.159 --> 00:38:18.800
And when I asked Kirby, he said, oh no, he
844
00:38:18.840 --> 00:38:21.719
moved up to Big Bear and he's going to open
845
00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:25.239
a studio doing fine art. He's tired of lettering race
846
00:38:25.280 --> 00:38:28.000
cars and man. I went home and cried. And I
847
00:38:28.039 --> 00:38:31.599
didn't see him for about ten or fifteen years after
848
00:38:31.639 --> 00:38:33.800
that because I didn't run circles. I was more in
849
00:38:33.800 --> 00:38:36.360
a medical field by that time too, And I saw
850
00:38:36.440 --> 00:38:38.599
him at Semachean and went up and introduced myself. I said,
851
00:38:38.599 --> 00:38:39.920
you're not going to remember me. He goes, oh, I
852
00:38:39.960 --> 00:38:42.400
remember you, Corky. Your room names cars and he goes, yeah,
853
00:38:42.679 --> 00:38:44.320
you're the only kid who hung around, who had enough
854
00:38:44.320 --> 00:38:45.960
patience to hang around and learn something. He goes, I
855
00:38:46.039 --> 00:38:48.280
chased everybody else off, and so he was a big
856
00:38:48.519 --> 00:38:51.239
He was a big influence on me. So the mentoring
857
00:38:51.280 --> 00:38:54.320
thing is going back to advice for kids. I would say,
858
00:38:54.360 --> 00:38:59.639
it's twofold, find a mentor, be a mentor. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
859
00:38:59.760 --> 00:39:03.760
this only exactly right. It's going to die if we
860
00:39:03.800 --> 00:39:06.119
don't pass it on. Carson.
861
00:39:06.280 --> 00:39:09.639
I want you to think back to your days at Mattel,
862
00:39:09.760 --> 00:39:12.800
what pops in your head with that time that you're
863
00:39:12.840 --> 00:39:17.000
proud of accomplishments that you point people toward, if you
864
00:39:17.119 --> 00:39:18.719
if you had to name one one of the.
865
00:39:18.719 --> 00:39:21.320
Ones I'm most known for us the Twin Mill and
866
00:39:21.360 --> 00:39:24.039
the Deer too, getting those projects finished. The Twin Mill
867
00:39:24.119 --> 00:39:27.440
had a real checkered past, a real problem getting it built,
868
00:39:28.360 --> 00:39:31.920
and it was stalled and sitting under a canvas rap
869
00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:34.800
rusting in the back. When boys went bankrupt, it was
870
00:39:34.920 --> 00:39:36.679
taken out of the middle of the night and rescued
871
00:39:36.679 --> 00:39:40.760
out of there, Like I said to Larry and a
872
00:39:40.760 --> 00:39:42.480
couple other guys for the guys that had recruited me
873
00:39:42.519 --> 00:39:44.400
to be their boss, even though it was already in process.
874
00:39:44.440 --> 00:39:46.119
And so the first day I met with John Handy
875
00:39:46.159 --> 00:39:49.440
when I left the Disney Entertainment Division, I had an
876
00:39:49.480 --> 00:39:51.800
interview with John and he said, Okay, you know great,
877
00:39:51.840 --> 00:39:54.000
the job's yours. Do you have any questions? I said, yeah, John,
878
00:39:54.039 --> 00:39:55.800
whatever happened to the Twin Mill? And John looked at
879
00:39:55.880 --> 00:39:57.880
me said, why would you screw up a perfectly good
880
00:39:57.880 --> 00:40:00.559
interview because that is sitting in the back rusted, And
881
00:40:00.920 --> 00:40:03.840
again I get I gint wound up, he said, John
882
00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:05.960
That car is our history. That car is the first
883
00:40:05.960 --> 00:40:08.719
originally designed hot wheels car designed by Ira Gopher. Up
884
00:40:08.760 --> 00:40:10.920
until that date, everything was a Barracuda or a T
885
00:40:11.039 --> 00:40:12.800
Bird or a VW or a beat Nick Band. It
886
00:40:12.880 --> 00:40:15.199
was a real car. That was IRI's first design. That's
887
00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:18.000
what changed us into a studio. That's where we got credit.
888
00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:19.599
And I went into this big history of the twin
889
00:40:19.639 --> 00:40:21.320
Mill and save you all the details because I can
890
00:40:21.360 --> 00:40:24.159
go down a rabbit hole. And he said, okay, it's
891
00:40:24.159 --> 00:40:26.519
your project, get it built. And I said, well, what's
892
00:40:26.519 --> 00:40:28.199
my budget? He goes, you know, hell budget, But you
893
00:40:28.280 --> 00:40:31.440
got a lot of passion. So I had to figure
894
00:40:31.480 --> 00:40:33.679
out how to take this car. The motors we had
895
00:40:33.719 --> 00:40:36.639
two five O twos donated by GM that got watered
896
00:40:36.679 --> 00:40:40.000
down the boreholes and they rusted out. We couldn't even
897
00:40:40.039 --> 00:40:43.280
turn that over with any like boat engines.
898
00:40:43.280 --> 00:40:45.039
Are they actually automotive ones?
899
00:40:45.199 --> 00:40:45.280
No?
900
00:40:45.360 --> 00:40:48.440
They were five o' two G five or two performance okay,
901
00:40:48.480 --> 00:40:50.079
And it was supposed to be Himmy's. If you look
902
00:40:50.119 --> 00:40:52.280
at the car the way Ira designed it was a hmmie.
903
00:40:52.280 --> 00:40:54.119
But Boyd had to deal with GM that everything he
904
00:40:54.159 --> 00:40:56.440
built had GM motors, so he gave us GM Motors,
905
00:40:56.440 --> 00:40:59.239
which was okay, but boys went bankrupt. Chip called Larry
906
00:40:59.239 --> 00:41:01.880
and a couple other guys. This was when I was
907
00:41:01.920 --> 00:41:03.639
in the Disney division and said, Hey, they're going to
908
00:41:03.719 --> 00:41:05.280
the Bank's going to come and put a padlock on
909
00:41:05.320 --> 00:41:07.280
this place tomorrow. Come get your car because you're not
910
00:41:07.320 --> 00:41:08.639
gonna be able to get it otherwise there's no pink
911
00:41:08.679 --> 00:41:11.440
slip on it. So I'd say number one probably building
912
00:41:11.440 --> 00:41:13.559
the Twin Mill. A close second was the Peterson Hall
913
00:41:13.599 --> 00:41:17.920
of Fame doing that, putting that together, and sadly that
914
00:41:18.039 --> 00:41:19.800
only ran for two years and then there was nobody
915
00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:22.760
to carry it on and it just died. The last
916
00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:26.880
thing would probably be what I did with Alan Johnson
917
00:41:26.920 --> 00:41:30.039
and Bruce Pennhall and Bruce Sarver on the Hot Wheels
918
00:41:30.039 --> 00:41:31.800
funny car that we ran at the finals, that did
919
00:41:31.840 --> 00:41:34.159
the drags, that had the gigantic Hot Wheel logo on
920
00:41:34.199 --> 00:41:36.800
the side of it. Yeah, none of my stories are short.
921
00:41:38.000 --> 00:41:40.639
Back in the day, I knew Bruce Pennholl from speedway racing,
922
00:41:40.679 --> 00:41:43.000
you know, speedway motorcycle, and I stayed in touch with
923
00:41:43.079 --> 00:41:45.920
him and Bruce Pennhall, who was on Chips. He had
924
00:41:45.960 --> 00:41:49.079
won the Speedway Championship, World Championship. He had won the
925
00:41:49.119 --> 00:41:52.400
World Offshore Boat Racing with Ocean Spray, and he called
926
00:41:52.400 --> 00:41:55.119
me one day. I'd seen him at motorcycle races and
927
00:41:55.159 --> 00:41:58.000
watch his kids grow up and stuff, and he said, hey, Carson,
928
00:41:57.960 --> 00:42:00.039
I'm working with Alan Johnson. I want to be the
929
00:42:00.079 --> 00:42:02.000
first guy to have three world championships. I'm going to
930
00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:04.000
become a drag racer. I said, oh man, I said,
931
00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:06.320
Bruce is going to be completely different. And so he
932
00:42:06.320 --> 00:42:08.480
got hooked up with Alan Johnson. Bruce Sarver was driving
933
00:42:08.519 --> 00:42:11.280
the Emula funny car at the time and Bruce Bruce
934
00:42:11.280 --> 00:42:13.599
Pennall was going to get in it. So he said, look,
935
00:42:13.800 --> 00:42:16.000
we're not getting sponsorship for a second car. Can you
936
00:42:16.039 --> 00:42:17.440
help me? I said, what can I do? I don't
937
00:42:17.559 --> 00:42:19.679
you know back then I didn't sell sponsorship. He goes, well,
938
00:42:19.719 --> 00:42:23.079
I want permission to use the hot Wheels logo. I said, whoa.
939
00:42:23.119 --> 00:42:25.480
I said, okay, Look, I'm pretty good friends with legal,
940
00:42:25.679 --> 00:42:28.280
the lady who's the assistant to the law department. They
941
00:42:28.280 --> 00:42:31.360
had paralegal. I sit on the Mattel Employees Foundation with her.
942
00:42:31.840 --> 00:42:33.920
I'll talk to her. She guided me through. She said, okay,
943
00:42:34.239 --> 00:42:36.119
we can do it, but the contract's going to be
944
00:42:36.280 --> 00:42:38.559
very tight, very written in what they can and cannot do.
945
00:42:38.639 --> 00:42:41.599
It'll be a two foot long logo. I called Bruce back.
946
00:42:41.639 --> 00:42:44.480
He goes, two foot's great. So we start sending the
947
00:42:44.480 --> 00:42:46.800
contract back and forth, minor revisions that he calls. She says, look,
948
00:42:46.840 --> 00:42:48.559
I'm not get anybody. Can that two foot go to
949
00:42:48.639 --> 00:42:50.760
floor foot? Just fill a little more space. So it
950
00:42:50.760 --> 00:42:53.119
looks like I've got a at least a secondary sponsor,
951
00:42:53.159 --> 00:42:56.360
a contingency sponsor. I go back to legal and I'll
952
00:42:56.360 --> 00:42:57.880
say your name because she was just a sweet I
953
00:42:57.880 --> 00:43:01.440
loved working their debut Kata, and she said, we'll do it,
954
00:43:01.480 --> 00:43:03.280
but we're doing it more because you want to do it.
955
00:43:03.320 --> 00:43:04.559
You think it's good for the brand, and we kind
956
00:43:04.559 --> 00:43:06.400
of trust your instincts. And the marketing guys say, you
957
00:43:06.400 --> 00:43:08.800
know what's going on in drag racing, so you know
958
00:43:08.840 --> 00:43:11.440
where this story goes. It's like, you know, just Kee's
959
00:43:11.440 --> 00:43:14.400
getting bigger and bigger pretty soon, the logos all the
960
00:43:14.440 --> 00:43:16.199
way down the side of the car and its it
961
00:43:16.239 --> 00:43:19.480
costs me nothing and we at that race. It was
962
00:43:19.519 --> 00:43:23.199
the final the season. I think we're talking two thousand
963
00:43:23.199 --> 00:43:26.679
and one right around. I can't remember exactly. Anyway, we
964
00:43:26.760 --> 00:43:29.440
got all kinds of TV time. The car went all
965
00:43:29.480 --> 00:43:31.480
the way to the final and raced John Forrest in
966
00:43:31.519 --> 00:43:33.880
the final for the closest side by side funny car
967
00:43:33.960 --> 00:43:37.159
race of the year. We had probably twelve minutes of
968
00:43:37.239 --> 00:43:39.440
running time where they mentioned hot wheels, Hot wheels, hot wheels,
969
00:43:39.440 --> 00:43:42.440
which was free. The next day, my phone is blown
970
00:43:42.519 --> 00:43:45.000
up from my buddies Kenny Bernstein and Don per Dome.
971
00:43:45.840 --> 00:43:47.519
Tom McKillen, come on, why don't you tell us we
972
00:43:47.559 --> 00:43:49.280
would have done that? Why'd you give that deal to them?
973
00:43:49.320 --> 00:43:51.440
What they pay you? Would you pay them? I said, no,
974
00:43:51.480 --> 00:43:53.360
it's free, and they're going, oh, b yes, that couldn't
975
00:43:53.360 --> 00:43:54.800
have been free. I go, no, it's free.
976
00:43:54.960 --> 00:43:55.840
I tell them the story.
977
00:43:55.880 --> 00:43:59.760
And I got this really cool letter from Kenny Bernstein about, Hey,
978
00:43:59.840 --> 00:44:01.679
I understand how you couldn't go with me because I'm
979
00:44:01.719 --> 00:44:04.159
a beer company, but I could have done another car.
980
00:44:04.199 --> 00:44:05.960
And then Don's on the phone. Don's been a friend
981
00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:09.519
since I was twelve. Dons just nobody busts your you
982
00:44:09.519 --> 00:44:12.039
know what's like Tom McEwan does, he was the worst, sure,
983
00:44:12.400 --> 00:44:14.000
but Don was even gonna be attacked, but that I
984
00:44:14.039 --> 00:44:16.920
was probably doing that because it was an organic thing,
985
00:44:17.840 --> 00:44:19.960
you know, that nobody really saw, and it came from
986
00:44:20.199 --> 00:44:23.199
friendship and passion. The last thing I'll say, because I
987
00:44:23.199 --> 00:44:24.360
know you only asked me to do one, but I
988
00:44:24.360 --> 00:44:26.840
wold to answer what one would be kind of inventing
989
00:44:26.880 --> 00:44:30.679
the licensing program for men at hot wheels, and that
990
00:44:30.760 --> 00:44:33.000
came out of having the twin Mill at Sema doing
991
00:44:33.000 --> 00:44:35.800
wheels and tires and stuff and paint and clothing, a
992
00:44:35.880 --> 00:44:38.400
mother's wats all that stuff was. That was kind of
993
00:44:38.400 --> 00:44:40.360
a fun deal too, So I mean, you know, it's
994
00:44:40.360 --> 00:44:42.000
hard to nail down just one thing for me.
995
00:44:42.159 --> 00:44:45.880
Sorry, No, that's great. Yeah, I did want to tell
996
00:44:45.880 --> 00:44:48.320
you that's that's a great segue to my next question
997
00:44:48.360 --> 00:44:51.960
because you know, we've mentioned that you were in charge
998
00:44:51.960 --> 00:44:55.079
of licensing or you the director of licensing, and I'd
999
00:44:55.119 --> 00:44:57.679
love to have you explain a little bit more about
1000
00:44:57.719 --> 00:44:59.960
what was involved in that job and kind of how
1001
00:45:00.119 --> 00:45:02.559
that evolved into what redfin.
1002
00:45:02.920 --> 00:45:05.480
Yeah, so when it came time to do the twin Mill,
1003
00:45:05.840 --> 00:45:08.199
I make analogies in metaphors, and I'll make one now.
1004
00:45:08.440 --> 00:45:09.920
I'm the kid who wouldn't go to my mom and
1005
00:45:09.960 --> 00:45:13.000
ask for five dollars a month in allowance I'd ask
1006
00:45:13.039 --> 00:45:15.840
her for twenty cents a day, because every day I
1007
00:45:15.840 --> 00:45:17.239
had a new chance to need to get it or not.
1008
00:45:17.280 --> 00:45:19.000
If I only asked for five bucks, I had one chance.
1009
00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:21.039
So I would always do the stuff incremental, break down
1010
00:45:21.079 --> 00:45:24.280
things incrementally. So when I went to John Handy about
1011
00:45:24.280 --> 00:45:26.320
building the Twin Mill, and he gave me the job
1012
00:45:26.320 --> 00:45:28.480
to get it built, and that came through championship auto shows.
1013
00:45:28.480 --> 00:45:30.119
We wrote a deal like they did with the Red Baron.
1014
00:45:30.400 --> 00:45:33.079
He funded the completion of the car. I lit the
1015
00:45:33.119 --> 00:45:35.400
card in for three years of touring, and we also
1016
00:45:35.440 --> 00:45:37.800
gave him diecast to sell for him to sell that
1017
00:45:37.920 --> 00:45:41.039
offset like premiums to offset the upfront cost. And that
1018
00:45:41.119 --> 00:45:43.559
was a great deal. That car was a hit. When
1019
00:45:43.599 --> 00:45:46.119
I took it to SEMA, I told John, look, I'm
1020
00:45:46.119 --> 00:45:47.800
not just going to take a toy car and be
1021
00:45:47.880 --> 00:45:49.480
a toy car in front of seeing though. I say,
1022
00:45:49.519 --> 00:45:51.559
were the world's coolest car company. I want to He goes,
1023
00:45:51.599 --> 00:45:52.840
what are you thinking? I said, I want to make
1024
00:45:52.840 --> 00:45:54.599
some props. He goes, what do you think? I said, Well,
1025
00:45:54.599 --> 00:45:57.119
like wheels and tires and tools. I said, we have
1026
00:45:57.159 --> 00:45:59.119
ninety two designers on staff. Give them to me for
1027
00:45:59.159 --> 00:46:01.239
one day on my bud to do designs and then
1028
00:46:01.320 --> 00:46:02.960
I'll just put the drawings up. Well, once I got
1029
00:46:02.960 --> 00:46:05.320
the drawings, I went, look, look at this cool rinch.
1030
00:46:05.559 --> 00:46:07.519
I can't have a drawing. Let's make a rich Look
1031
00:46:07.519 --> 00:46:09.880
at this cool baseball cap and clothing for men, Let's
1032
00:46:09.880 --> 00:46:11.960
make that. Look at this car car wax, look at
1033
00:46:11.960 --> 00:46:15.079
this paint can. So John reluctantly would just and I
1034
00:46:15.119 --> 00:46:17.519
gotta give John Handy a lot of credit. He was
1035
00:46:17.559 --> 00:46:19.239
a head of design, but he let me run it
1036
00:46:19.280 --> 00:46:22.280
like licensing and kind of invent things. I knew there
1037
00:46:22.320 --> 00:46:24.480
was something there with the brand. We didn't have the
1038
00:46:24.559 --> 00:46:26.480
data yet, but I knew that men still had an
1039
00:46:26.480 --> 00:46:28.559
affinity for Hot Whis because I went to the conventions
1040
00:46:28.559 --> 00:46:29.920
a lot with Larry and you could see it. And
1041
00:46:29.960 --> 00:46:33.119
so this data revealed later that forty two million men
1042
00:46:33.119 --> 00:46:34.679
had an affinity for Hot Whis, but they were going
1043
00:46:34.719 --> 00:46:37.280
to buy toys, but they might buy like the Hot
1044
00:46:37.280 --> 00:46:40.199
Whizz Camaro that came from me, derive it of my work.
1045
00:46:40.519 --> 00:46:41.960
I set it up with GM, and then when I left,
1046
00:46:41.960 --> 00:46:44.239
they finally pulled the trigger on it. And so when
1047
00:46:44.280 --> 00:46:46.400
we took the twin mill to Seema, the first thing
1048
00:46:46.440 --> 00:46:49.679
I did was. I was strictly told by our lost
1049
00:46:49.679 --> 00:46:53.519
prevention officer, you will not drive that car in the street.
1050
00:46:53.880 --> 00:46:56.320
That car will come off the trailer and directly into
1051
00:46:56.360 --> 00:46:59.519
the showroom into SEMA. I'm like, uh huh, I never
1052
00:46:59.519 --> 00:47:02.679
said yes, I agree as a formality to try to
1053
00:47:02.679 --> 00:47:04.559
get me off the hook. So we had a video
1054
00:47:04.599 --> 00:47:07.639
crew there videotaping it. Car comes off the trailer there
1055
00:47:07.679 --> 00:47:09.599
in the back of the truck, filmed mecause it's coming
1056
00:47:09.639 --> 00:47:11.599
off the trailer, and I give the we're going around.
1057
00:47:11.639 --> 00:47:13.559
Guys that are like no, I go, we're going around,
1058
00:47:13.880 --> 00:47:15.840
And so I opened a canopy. I said, we're not
1059
00:47:15.960 --> 00:47:17.800
doing all this work, wasting all this time to not
1060
00:47:17.880 --> 00:47:20.800
drive this car on a street. So we drive out
1061
00:47:20.800 --> 00:47:23.119
the back of the convention center. I go down Joe Brown.
1062
00:47:23.800 --> 00:47:26.119
I passed the first motorcycle or the first policeman who
1063
00:47:26.119 --> 00:47:27.840
gives me the thumbs up, like, hey, nice car, I
1064
00:47:27.840 --> 00:47:29.760
mean Steama, right, you see nice cars gives me the
1065
00:47:29.760 --> 00:47:32.679
thumbs up. I go with the further turn forwards Las Vegas, Bulevard.
1066
00:47:32.679 --> 00:47:35.360
There's a there's a cop on a motorcycle who's just
1067
00:47:35.400 --> 00:47:38.320
getting back on putting his ticket box ticket thing to
1068
00:47:38.440 --> 00:47:40.199
write a book at what you gonna call it in
1069
00:47:40.239 --> 00:47:42.199
the back of the satchel, and he looks at me,
1070
00:47:42.440 --> 00:47:44.559
and I'll never forget this guy. He looks at me
1071
00:47:44.559 --> 00:47:47.280
and he shakes his head like he puts his hands
1072
00:47:47.280 --> 00:47:49.679
out like how do I ride a ticket for you
1073
00:47:49.760 --> 00:47:52.280
being stupid? And then he puts his hands up like
1074
00:47:52.400 --> 00:47:55.599
I didn't see you. So we took it back in
1075
00:47:55.639 --> 00:47:57.920
I'm leaking andy freeze all over the place. So that
1076
00:47:58.039 --> 00:48:00.760
was it. But at the show looks through short the show,
1077
00:48:00.800 --> 00:48:03.320
we have all the samples wheels and car wax and
1078
00:48:03.320 --> 00:48:05.960
clothing as samples. Well, I went to school the guy
1079
00:48:05.960 --> 00:48:08.599
who owned KMC Wheels, Kevin Fitzgerald. And Kevin goes, dude,
1080
00:48:08.599 --> 00:48:10.599
your sandbag. I mean when did Hot Wheels start making wheels?
1081
00:48:10.639 --> 00:48:12.280
I go, no, these are mock ups. He goes, all
1082
00:48:12.320 --> 00:48:16.280
licensese designs right now. Jim Holloway Mother's wax comes over.
1083
00:48:16.320 --> 00:48:19.119
He goes, you're doing wax? Is it Whoji do? Is
1084
00:48:19.239 --> 00:48:22.079
with Maguires? I goes, no, it's it's a concept. All
1085
00:48:22.159 --> 00:48:25.719
license wax with you right now, BC Ethic on apparel,
1086
00:48:26.039 --> 00:48:28.760
at PPG on paint in four days. I don't mind
1087
00:48:28.760 --> 00:48:31.559
telling you the numbers in four days, I signed four
1088
00:48:31.599 --> 00:48:35.199
contracts for licensing that netted the company at the end
1089
00:48:35.199 --> 00:48:37.679
of the year four point five million dollars in advances
1090
00:48:37.719 --> 00:48:41.760
and guarantees. So I'm not in licensing right So when
1091
00:48:41.760 --> 00:48:46.519
I call Matt Busquet is the president at Hot Wheels
1092
00:48:46.559 --> 00:48:49.280
at the time Boys Toys, I'll just say right now,
1093
00:48:49.480 --> 00:48:51.920
not my favorite guy. Kind of a loof dis hard
1094
00:48:51.960 --> 00:48:53.599
to deal with. Anyway. I called, said Matt, I need
1095
00:48:53.639 --> 00:48:55.360
to get a license into tourney out here. He goes, Carson,
1096
00:48:55.400 --> 00:48:57.119
You're not at the license. He show you're at SEMA.
1097
00:48:57.880 --> 00:49:00.199
I said, no, I got four deals lined up right now.
1098
00:49:00.719 --> 00:49:02.800
So they said, Jeffrey orri jout. We signed those deals,
1099
00:49:02.800 --> 00:49:04.639
got the guarantees. The end of the years checks geared.
1100
00:49:05.039 --> 00:49:07.679
I come back from SEMA, I get like a call
1101
00:49:07.760 --> 00:49:09.320
slip like you were in school, that said you had
1102
00:49:09.320 --> 00:49:11.000
to go see the principal. On a little note thing,
1103
00:49:11.440 --> 00:49:13.800
it said report to Matt Busquete. First thing. When you're in.
1104
00:49:13.960 --> 00:49:15.559
I go in there. I'm like, and he's hied his
1105
00:49:15.639 --> 00:49:17.840
desk in the big office in the tower. Because I
1106
00:49:17.840 --> 00:49:19.400
hear it went pretty well. I said, yeah, it was amazing.
1107
00:49:19.440 --> 00:49:21.320
Jeff did these contracts. He goes say yeah, here, you
1108
00:49:21.360 --> 00:49:23.000
were instrumental in that thing. I said, well, these are
1109
00:49:23.039 --> 00:49:25.159
guys I've worked with their friends. He goes, okay, I'm
1110
00:49:25.159 --> 00:49:26.800
just going to cut the chase. You run licensing.
1111
00:49:26.840 --> 00:49:27.000
Now.
1112
00:49:27.639 --> 00:49:31.960
I'm like, Matt, yeah, I've done some licensing. He goes, look,
1113
00:49:32.159 --> 00:49:33.639
you know enough to do in four days, and no
1114
00:49:33.639 --> 00:49:36.079
one else is down here in forty years. So I
1115
00:49:36.119 --> 00:49:39.360
came back and I'm running licensing. I was still taking
1116
00:49:39.360 --> 00:49:41.119
care of some of the design and engineering stuff at
1117
00:49:41.119 --> 00:49:44.440
the same time, which was fun. But that created a
1118
00:49:44.519 --> 00:49:47.639
relationship of the OEM guys. And even though I had
1119
00:49:47.639 --> 00:49:50.599
friends in SEMA, and the funny story is i'd go
1120
00:49:50.719 --> 00:49:52.480
to he was in the medical field, I always went
1121
00:49:52.480 --> 00:49:54.679
to SEMA. I went to one of the very first
1122
00:49:54.719 --> 00:49:57.079
scenas when it was under the bleachers at Dodger Stadium
1123
00:49:57.079 --> 00:49:58.599
with my next door neighbor who had a jeep and
1124
00:49:58.840 --> 00:50:01.920
worked for Rancho Supply Rancho Suspension, and he was a
1125
00:50:02.000 --> 00:50:03.719
jeep guy. I had a bunch of parts rattle around
1126
00:50:03.719 --> 00:50:05.280
on his seat and his wife said, want you to let
1127
00:50:05.320 --> 00:50:07.039
Quirky carry those as you drive them? Like, where are
1128
00:50:07.039 --> 00:50:08.079
you going to Dodger Stadium?
1129
00:50:08.239 --> 00:50:08.480
What for?
1130
00:50:08.760 --> 00:50:10.920
Where's a big car show? Its first year. So I
1131
00:50:10.960 --> 00:50:13.119
went to the very first SEMA and I would always
1132
00:50:13.159 --> 00:50:16.239
go so I knew these guys. But when I and
1133
00:50:16.840 --> 00:50:18.960
I'm no dummy. When I had the credibility of Hot
1134
00:50:19.000 --> 00:50:21.199
Wheels behind me, a big giant company that AI was
1135
00:50:21.320 --> 00:50:24.719
very successful with Hot Wheels being a name brand, I
1136
00:50:24.719 --> 00:50:27.920
could formalize my friendships and turn them into business deals
1137
00:50:27.960 --> 00:50:29.760
and they were all happy because we were making money
1138
00:50:29.760 --> 00:50:31.960
for him. And then those deals got to be bigger
1139
00:50:31.960 --> 00:50:34.320
and bigger and bigger. And then towards the end of
1140
00:50:34.320 --> 00:50:37.599
that career, Chip got a TV show, Ryan, a West
1141
00:50:37.599 --> 00:50:40.239
Coast custom was doing stuff. Ivan Stuart, who's another client
1142
00:50:40.280 --> 00:50:42.280
of mine, first client, was doing more stuff with Toyota.
1143
00:50:43.000 --> 00:50:45.400
Disney needed some stuff done, some petty stuff needed to
1144
00:50:45.440 --> 00:50:48.679
be done. I was getting a little frustrated with Mattel
1145
00:50:48.920 --> 00:50:51.119
for a lot of reasons and we won't go into those,
1146
00:50:51.159 --> 00:50:54.480
but personalities and some of the stuff that was going on.
1147
00:50:55.400 --> 00:50:57.400
And then I saw this potential of taking all my
1148
00:50:57.480 --> 00:51:02.760
learning from marketing, design, engineering, licensing and starting my own agency.
1149
00:51:02.840 --> 00:51:05.079
And I was lucky. I had Ivan Stewart and Chip
1150
00:51:05.119 --> 00:51:07.920
already as clients before right when I left, they signed
1151
00:51:07.920 --> 00:51:10.920
me the next day and so it turned into licensing
1152
00:51:10.960 --> 00:51:14.519
became the basis of licensing. But the real story is
1153
00:51:14.639 --> 00:51:18.039
licensing started back when I was doing CT scanners. We
1154
00:51:18.079 --> 00:51:21.119
had built a dedicated head scanner. My boss came to
1155
00:51:21.159 --> 00:51:23.480
me said, hey, look, I have this weird opportunity for
1156
00:51:23.559 --> 00:51:25.840
us to not just manufacture these but license them. I go,
1157
00:51:25.920 --> 00:51:27.440
what's licensing? He goes, well, it's like if I load
1158
00:51:27.519 --> 00:51:30.159
you my lawnmower and you got to pay me for it. Okay,
1159
00:51:31.039 --> 00:51:33.039
he says, but this is around our intellectual property. I said,
1160
00:51:33.119 --> 00:51:35.039
what is it? He goes, they want to license. Toshiba
1161
00:51:35.079 --> 00:51:37.679
wants to license our head scanner for manufacturer and sale
1162
00:51:37.719 --> 00:51:40.480
in Japan. ONLY said okay. I said, well, how's that
1163
00:51:40.639 --> 00:51:43.119
involved me? He goes, well, you led the design team,
1164
00:51:43.159 --> 00:51:44.920
and some of the patents and the technology grants are
1165
00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:47.480
under your name and our name. So write a contract
1166
00:51:47.480 --> 00:51:51.000
that protects those things, and that's a licensing contract. So
1167
00:51:51.039 --> 00:51:55.039
I learned a lot, not just culturally, about Japan and
1168
00:51:55.119 --> 00:51:58.679
Japanese culture and stuff, and how high does not mean yes,
1169
00:51:58.719 --> 00:52:02.159
it means I comprehend how you refuse a gift three times,
1170
00:52:02.199 --> 00:52:03.880
how you had a business card with two hands and
1171
00:52:04.159 --> 00:52:06.519
a bow a bit, how you never put soy sauce
1172
00:52:06.559 --> 00:52:08.320
on your rice because it shows you never had any
1173
00:52:08.320 --> 00:52:10.039
real food in your life, like put catchup on a
1174
00:52:10.119 --> 00:52:12.480
Thanksgiving dinner. I learned a lot of stuff outside of
1175
00:52:12.559 --> 00:52:15.280
licensing and had a good attorney to walk me through.
1176
00:52:15.280 --> 00:52:17.280
But that was the very first licensing thing I did.
1177
00:52:17.360 --> 00:52:19.440
Was that Toshiba and the license our headscanner. So that
1178
00:52:19.519 --> 00:52:23.559
format became the format I've used ever since. So there's
1179
00:52:23.599 --> 00:52:24.639
a shaggy dog story for you.
1180
00:52:24.679 --> 00:52:25.280
It's very cool.
1181
00:52:25.719 --> 00:52:28.599
Yeah, you know what I hear. Of course, look around,
1182
00:52:28.679 --> 00:52:30.800
see what you're good at and see if you can
1183
00:52:30.880 --> 00:52:31.840
turn that into a job.
1184
00:52:33.039 --> 00:52:33.800
Yeah, what do they say?
1185
00:52:33.840 --> 00:52:34.079
Do it?
1186
00:52:34.159 --> 00:52:36.360
Do what you love and you'll never work another day? Well,
1187
00:52:38.119 --> 00:52:40.480
like Mark, that's what Mark's doing. Well, tell you truth,
1188
00:52:40.519 --> 00:52:42.679
it's still turns to work.
1189
00:52:42.679 --> 00:52:45.039
There's still those jobs where you're, oh god, aren't there
1190
00:52:45.119 --> 00:52:47.559
there's still your question on what you do while you're
1191
00:52:47.559 --> 00:52:49.440
doing it and if you're going to continue to do it.
1192
00:52:49.840 --> 00:52:53.159
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I advise people in business a lot.
1193
00:52:53.320 --> 00:52:54.960
While I can, I do consulting for business guys that
1194
00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:57.119
are starting out or a partnership. When I'm doing right now,
1195
00:52:57.119 --> 00:52:59.880
it's like two things I understand really soon what you
1196
00:53:00.159 --> 00:53:01.639
to do more of, what you want to do less of.
1197
00:53:02.360 --> 00:53:05.079
That's the first thing. And the second thing is much
1198
00:53:05.159 --> 00:53:06.920
like a football game or a baseball game, you better
1199
00:53:06.960 --> 00:53:09.280
have a game plan. What's your end goal with this business?
1200
00:53:09.320 --> 00:53:12.880
Sell it, transfer it, be merged, send it to your kids.
1201
00:53:13.440 --> 00:53:15.039
You know, you do a football game. You know you
1202
00:53:15.119 --> 00:53:17.840
want balance between running and passing, you want special teams
1203
00:53:17.840 --> 00:53:19.840
to do better and less penalties. Whatever. You have a game.
1204
00:53:19.880 --> 00:53:21.960
But it's surprising me how many people go into business
1205
00:53:22.000 --> 00:53:23.559
they don't have a game plan as to what they
1206
00:53:23.599 --> 00:53:25.519
want to do more of or less of, and how
1207
00:53:25.559 --> 00:53:27.559
they want to make a transition when they're done doing it.
1208
00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:31.039
Yeah, those are first and foremost things, especially like honing
1209
00:53:31.079 --> 00:53:33.639
in on what you actually want to do and what
1210
00:53:33.719 --> 00:53:34.480
you don't want to do.
1211
00:53:35.079 --> 00:53:38.199
Take the metaphor I make is like a music band, like,
1212
00:53:38.519 --> 00:53:40.920
let's take the Eagles. You know there's a sphere now
1213
00:53:40.960 --> 00:53:42.719
we just we saw them a little while ago. Was amazing.
1214
00:53:42.760 --> 00:53:45.119
But when you think about it, in a concert, if
1215
00:53:45.119 --> 00:53:46.400
they stood up and said, hey, we're not going to
1216
00:53:46.400 --> 00:53:48.239
play any of the old standards, We're going to play
1217
00:53:48.239 --> 00:53:50.320
all our new music, the first thing to hear from
1218
00:53:50.320 --> 00:53:54.719
the audience is playing Hot California. And so what happens
1219
00:53:54.760 --> 00:53:57.079
is now they're playing the same stuff over and over.
1220
00:53:57.559 --> 00:54:00.480
Their audience is diminishing. They're not getting a new audience.
1221
00:54:00.679 --> 00:54:02.880
They're not growing their craft, they're not growing their business,
1222
00:54:02.920 --> 00:54:05.599
they're not creating a bigger base to work from. They're
1223
00:54:05.599 --> 00:54:09.360
they're really not moving forward. They're saying staying stagnant, and
1224
00:54:09.400 --> 00:54:12.480
they're not. They're not growing. And so really you got
1225
00:54:12.480 --> 00:54:13.960
to kind of mix in some new stuff with the
1226
00:54:13.960 --> 00:54:17.519
old stuff. Sometimes the old stuff and this analogy also
1227
00:54:17.599 --> 00:54:20.880
making business. It's usually true generally a business, the stuff
1228
00:54:20.880 --> 00:54:22.800
that you don't like and you know you're most tired of,
1229
00:54:23.119 --> 00:54:25.760
it's probably the stuff you're most profitable on because you
1230
00:54:25.840 --> 00:54:27.280
were doing it for a while, you know how to
1231
00:54:27.320 --> 00:54:29.480
do it, and that's why it's boring. And generally the
1232
00:54:29.480 --> 00:54:31.639
stuff that's the most exciting is the stuff you're not
1233
00:54:31.679 --> 00:54:32.440
making money on.
1234
00:54:33.440 --> 00:54:37.199
Generally, generally, Hey, that's the that's the business model for
1235
00:54:37.239 --> 00:54:37.639
this show.
1236
00:54:38.079 --> 00:54:38.840
Yeah, that's true.
1237
00:54:39.639 --> 00:54:42.719
As you're kind of doing this this licensing thing now
1238
00:54:42.719 --> 00:54:45.559
and you're you're running your own agency, are you still
1239
00:54:45.760 --> 00:54:47.559
are you still doing stuff with the tiny cars? Are
1240
00:54:47.599 --> 00:54:49.880
you still looking you know, do you still return back
1241
00:54:49.920 --> 00:54:52.719
to that that Oh yeah.
1242
00:54:51.960 --> 00:54:53.599
Yeah, I mean how those came out when I was
1243
00:54:53.599 --> 00:54:55.719
in high school, so I didn't play with the toy cars,
1244
00:54:55.760 --> 00:54:57.280
but I was at the dragstript looking at you know
1245
00:54:57.360 --> 00:54:59.519
McEwan and pronomece you know, real hot wheels cars, and
1246
00:54:59.599 --> 00:55:01.159
it was more poored to me in the driving. But
1247
00:55:01.679 --> 00:55:03.239
I got grandkids who love them. In fact, my two
1248
00:55:03.280 --> 00:55:05.719
youngest grandkids can't understand why I ever left that job.
1249
00:55:05.719 --> 00:55:08.639
They are about hot wheels chunkies. When Brian Benedict was there,
1250
00:55:08.639 --> 00:55:10.159
he would always host me once a year, let my
1251
00:55:10.159 --> 00:55:12.119
two little grandsons go through like they own the place,
1252
00:55:12.119 --> 00:55:13.639
and they would set up tracks for them to play
1253
00:55:13.679 --> 00:55:16.159
on a test and they did. They love it, and
1254
00:55:16.199 --> 00:55:18.880
so they're the best. They're they're like my mental health
1255
00:55:19.039 --> 00:55:22.400
and other perfect aids. They're like seven and eight. So yeah,
1256
00:55:22.440 --> 00:55:24.800
but I'm doing some licensing deals. I did a licensing
1257
00:55:24.840 --> 00:55:27.840
deal for don fordome a while back. I finished up
1258
00:55:27.880 --> 00:55:29.840
some stuff. So we used to do a lot of
1259
00:55:29.840 --> 00:55:32.440
work with NBC Universal for Fast and Furious. We started
1260
00:55:32.440 --> 00:55:35.199
with them on movie six, did all their brand alignment,
1261
00:55:35.239 --> 00:55:37.960
We checked their story for accuracy, We did clearances for them.
1262
00:55:38.000 --> 00:55:40.639
On licensing, we ranked all their cars. We tied their
1263
00:55:40.679 --> 00:55:43.559
cars to characters. My first argument when I first saw
1264
00:55:43.559 --> 00:55:45.719
the first Fast and Furious is Paul Walker would not
1265
00:55:45.840 --> 00:55:47.960
drive a skyline one day in a sixty eight charger
1266
00:55:48.039 --> 00:55:50.599
the next day. Generally, characters are consistent, just like John
1267
00:55:50.639 --> 00:55:53.480
Wayne wore the same cowboy uniform through the whole movie.
1268
00:55:53.800 --> 00:55:56.159
And you've got to got to keep things in a
1269
00:55:56.199 --> 00:55:59.159
scoops or speak. We did a lot of forced ranking
1270
00:55:59.159 --> 00:56:01.480
in their cars. They had a matrix on which cars
1271
00:56:01.559 --> 00:56:04.119
within licensing are the easiest to get a license, the
1272
00:56:04.159 --> 00:56:06.719
most productive, how important they are in the car culture,
1273
00:56:06.719 --> 00:56:08.199
and how important they are in the movie. And that
1274
00:56:08.280 --> 00:56:11.880
was not an equal based formula. It was a sliding scale.
1275
00:56:12.119 --> 00:56:13.719
So we did a lot of work with them. Right now,
1276
00:56:13.719 --> 00:56:15.719
I'm working with a buddy of mine who used to
1277
00:56:15.719 --> 00:56:23.000
be at Action and also with Milestone, and we're trying
1278
00:56:23.000 --> 00:56:25.280
to fill the market in NHRI because there's been no
1279
00:56:25.360 --> 00:56:27.199
new die cast in NHRO for about a year and
1280
00:56:27.239 --> 00:56:29.880
a half. A lot of the guys that used to
1281
00:56:29.920 --> 00:56:31.960
work for teams, the Schoemarket teams and that now we
1282
00:56:32.039 --> 00:56:35.199
depend It is antroon Brown, We're on caps. All buddies
1283
00:56:35.239 --> 00:56:37.480
of mine Antron Brown got inducted into the Hall of
1284
00:56:37.519 --> 00:56:39.000
Fame too, which was cool. I got to give him
1285
00:56:39.000 --> 00:56:42.119
his ring, and Jack Beckman got his. But they're so
1286
00:56:42.239 --> 00:56:45.159
busy with business, they're forgetting that void in the marketplace
1287
00:56:45.320 --> 00:56:48.760
is going to cause call it lack of matriculation. So
1288
00:56:48.800 --> 00:56:50.519
we need to take certain sports out of middle schools
1289
00:56:50.559 --> 00:56:52.079
pretty soon. It won't be in high school pretty soon,
1290
00:56:52.159 --> 00:56:55.199
it won't be in Olympics or anywhere else. And that
1291
00:56:55.239 --> 00:56:58.159
happens with certain sports, same things happening with die casts.
1292
00:56:58.199 --> 00:57:01.480
The absence of die casts is not feeding that frenzy
1293
00:57:01.519 --> 00:57:03.239
for the guys who want to collect and gather either
1294
00:57:03.280 --> 00:57:06.519
horizontally vertically. I collect all camaros, I collect all drag racing,
1295
00:57:06.519 --> 00:57:09.239
whatever it is. We're not reinforcing passion with something you
1296
00:57:09.239 --> 00:57:10.960
could put in your hand like a hot wheels, like
1297
00:57:11.000 --> 00:57:12.840
a talisman, like you can live through it. It's a
1298
00:57:12.920 --> 00:57:15.960
psychographic thing where you aspire to be that person or
1299
00:57:15.960 --> 00:57:19.280
reflex who you are, and we're missing the market. So
1300
00:57:20.440 --> 00:57:21.960
Brian and I are on a mission to get some
1301
00:57:22.159 --> 00:57:24.519
hot wheels die cast going. We've talked to John Force
1302
00:57:24.519 --> 00:57:27.559
about doing all his early cars, and we've done Force
1303
00:57:27.599 --> 00:57:29.400
for a long time, we did his car and overhauling.
1304
00:57:29.400 --> 00:57:32.559
We sponsored Ashley and drag racing. So I'm still doing
1305
00:57:32.599 --> 00:57:35.159
some licensing, and I'm doing a lot of consulting for
1306
00:57:35.320 --> 00:57:38.760
different businesses and manufacturing the die cast side. So I
1307
00:57:38.760 --> 00:57:43.599
don't do the representation anymore. Sponsorship money has changed dramatically,
1308
00:57:44.360 --> 00:57:48.519
endorsements have changed dramatically. Licensing is still stable. But the
1309
00:57:48.639 --> 00:57:50.639
problem is now that I have and this is just me.
1310
00:57:50.800 --> 00:57:53.559
I don't know what you guys opinion is. I have
1311
00:57:53.599 --> 00:57:58.440
a hard time calibrating influencers against the real guys. So
1312
00:57:58.599 --> 00:58:00.960
just because a person, I get this from my daughter
1313
00:58:00.960 --> 00:58:03.480
all the time, because she watches all this stuff. Dad,
1314
00:58:03.480 --> 00:58:06.719
have you seen this influencer. He's got seven million viewers
1315
00:58:06.719 --> 00:58:09.199
and he doesn't even know how to apply lug nuts
1316
00:58:08.960 --> 00:58:11.880
in a star pattern when you torqu wheels down. He
1317
00:58:11.880 --> 00:58:13.679
doesn't understand how you start them when it's on the
1318
00:58:13.719 --> 00:58:15.679
jack stand and to tighten when the car is barely
1319
00:58:15.719 --> 00:58:18.039
on the ground. They don't put a film of oil
1320
00:58:18.079 --> 00:58:20.000
on the oil filter when they put the oil in.
1321
00:58:20.039 --> 00:58:21.599
These are all things you taught me as a kid, Dad.
1322
00:58:21.679 --> 00:58:27.119
He's dead, and yet they're an influencer. And so we
1323
00:58:27.159 --> 00:58:29.440
found the last couple of years. We're baddling influencers who
1324
00:58:29.480 --> 00:58:30.760
are famous for being famous.
1325
00:58:31.360 --> 00:58:32.920
Yeah, and the.
1326
00:58:32.880 --> 00:58:34.840
Thing I'd said it years ago. What bothers me is
1327
00:58:34.880 --> 00:58:37.519
the SEEMA. I don't want to make fun of my
1328
00:58:37.559 --> 00:58:40.760
friends at SEMA, but it's changed some aspects to me
1329
00:58:40.800 --> 00:58:43.679
seem more like Comic Con than SEMA. But it seems
1330
00:58:43.719 --> 00:58:48.440
the industry now rewards personality more than performance. And I'm
1331
00:58:48.440 --> 00:58:51.159
an old school guy. I'm a you know, Dan Gurney,
1332
00:58:51.920 --> 00:58:53.880
Parnelli Jones, who's been a great guy to me. He
1333
00:58:53.920 --> 00:58:55.519
passed away, great god to me since I was a
1334
00:58:55.559 --> 00:59:00.000
kid snaking Mongoo's petty force, guys who understood you crawl
1335
00:59:00.119 --> 00:59:04.360
before you walk, before you run, and so that was
1336
00:59:04.440 --> 00:59:06.079
kind of a bell weather for me. Of Like, the
1337
00:59:06.119 --> 00:59:08.000
business has changed, and we've had a pivot and shift
1338
00:59:08.000 --> 00:59:09.840
two or three times in our business of twenty years.
1339
00:59:09.880 --> 00:59:11.280
But that was a pivot and ship that I wasn't
1340
00:59:11.280 --> 00:59:13.960
willing to make. And I wasn't gonna have influencers on
1341
00:59:14.000 --> 00:59:15.559
my roster, no matter how good they were. I just
1342
00:59:15.559 --> 00:59:19.239
wasn't gonna do it. I just didn't get it. Yeah,
1343
00:59:19.280 --> 00:59:20.320
that's the big change.
1344
00:59:20.679 --> 00:59:25.119
Sorry, Whistling Diesel, you're not working with Carson Love right now,
1345
00:59:25.599 --> 00:59:30.960
that's right. He got a tax evasion anyway. Anyway, So Carson,
1346
00:59:31.239 --> 00:59:33.760
just really quick. You've said this a few times now.
1347
00:59:33.800 --> 00:59:38.800
And I'm in marketing myself and a fan of psychology,
1348
00:59:38.840 --> 00:59:43.519
and I really loved the psychology yea of hot Wheels cars,
1349
00:59:43.559 --> 00:59:46.599
specifically like the die cast the three inch car that
1350
00:59:46.880 --> 00:59:50.280
I've argued along that, you know, besides the ball, I
1351
00:59:50.320 --> 00:59:53.599
think a hot wheels car is the perfect toy. I
1352
00:59:53.639 --> 00:59:57.599
would agree, just because it's something that doesn't require a battery.
1353
00:59:57.880 --> 00:59:59.960
It fits in your pocket, you can use it by itself.
1354
01:00:00.199 --> 01:00:01.840
You can put it on a shelf, you can run
1355
01:00:01.880 --> 01:00:03.719
it down a track, you can crash it, you can
1356
01:00:04.159 --> 01:00:08.199
modify it, you can do anything. If you like tacos,
1357
01:00:08.239 --> 01:00:10.800
there's one that looks like a taco. If I tell
1358
01:00:10.840 --> 01:00:13.679
this story, I went to this flea market that had
1359
01:00:13.719 --> 01:00:15.079
a lot of die cast cars, and I went with
1360
01:00:15.119 --> 01:00:18.440
my best friend and his wife, and she was just
1361
01:00:18.519 --> 01:00:22.039
kind of laughing about grown men with toy cars and
1362
01:00:22.079 --> 01:00:24.039
how you know, she could just never get into hot
1363
01:00:24.039 --> 01:00:26.559
wheels and never go. And so we're at this huge
1364
01:00:26.639 --> 01:00:29.639
rack of you know, mostly blue cards, but there were
1365
01:00:29.639 --> 01:00:32.840
some newer stuff in there, and and she finds the one,
1366
01:00:33.000 --> 01:00:35.280
the Taco car, and she's like, I love tacos. I
1367
01:00:35.360 --> 01:00:36.000
kind of get this one.
1368
01:00:36.000 --> 01:00:36.719
This is so cool.
1369
01:00:37.320 --> 01:00:40.639
I was like, eh see, there's so I always say
1370
01:00:40.679 --> 01:00:44.800
there's a die cast car for everyone, And so I'm
1371
01:00:44.840 --> 01:00:47.519
curious from you're asking when you talk about like emotional
1372
01:00:47.519 --> 01:00:50.199
triggers and stuff like that. You know, if you would
1373
01:00:50.199 --> 01:00:51.920
expound just a little bit on your thoughts on the
1374
01:00:51.920 --> 01:00:53.440
psychology of a Hot Wheels.
1375
01:00:53.159 --> 01:00:55.039
Car, I mean, you are right, they are the perfect car.
1376
01:00:55.039 --> 01:00:58.440
They're shining, they're bright, they look cool by profill, they
1377
01:00:58.440 --> 01:01:00.559
look cool by color, by stance. Put them in your
1378
01:01:00.559 --> 01:01:02.679
pocket and crash into these things. Those are all the
1379
01:01:03.039 --> 01:01:05.760
things that become tangible and mechanical to you. You know,
1380
01:01:05.800 --> 01:01:09.079
you can relate to immediately. The psychology is very very
1381
01:01:09.079 --> 01:01:11.119
interesting to me, of course a student of psychology and
1382
01:01:11.239 --> 01:01:15.280
understand especial marketing is released to psychology when you look
1383
01:01:15.320 --> 01:01:17.559
at it. There's really two different ways to profile a customer.
1384
01:01:17.599 --> 01:01:20.559
You can profile them by demographics, where they work, their income,
1385
01:01:20.599 --> 01:01:22.119
do they have a dog, what truck do they drive,
1386
01:01:22.159 --> 01:01:24.119
what's their education, what's their income, what's their zip code,
1387
01:01:24.119 --> 01:01:27.039
blah blah blahs. Er demographics that's a target, and that's
1388
01:01:27.039 --> 01:01:32.360
like a pointing mechanism. Your customer is over there. Psychographics,
1389
01:01:32.360 --> 01:01:34.239
which are new and have really been enhances with social
1390
01:01:34.280 --> 01:01:37.920
media because everybody posted their life is perfect. Psychographists have
1391
01:01:38.079 --> 01:01:39.760
to do with how we feel about ourselves, how we
1392
01:01:39.800 --> 01:01:43.880
project it through two main aspects of how our behavior works.
1393
01:01:44.199 --> 01:01:48.320
It's either aspirational or reflectional. I aspire to own a Ferrari.
1394
01:01:48.840 --> 01:01:51.000
I got a Ferrari logo on my shirt. You think
1395
01:01:51.039 --> 01:01:53.360
I own a Ferrari. I just I posed a bit.
1396
01:01:53.440 --> 01:01:57.320
I projected. The trick is projective fulfilled. But the aspirational
1397
01:01:57.360 --> 01:01:58.719
thing is what kids start with. I want to be
1398
01:01:58.719 --> 01:02:00.199
a fireman. I want to be a cowboy. I want
1399
01:02:00.239 --> 01:02:01.519
to be an astronaut. I want to be a tow
1400
01:02:01.519 --> 01:02:03.199
truck driver. I want to be a monster truck driver.
1401
01:02:03.280 --> 01:02:05.360
That's they aspire. They hold that thing in their hand
1402
01:02:05.719 --> 01:02:09.039
and now they see tangible functional thing in their hand
1403
01:02:09.039 --> 01:02:11.840
that's a transfer element, like a tasman, like a touchstone.
1404
01:02:12.280 --> 01:02:14.559
They touched that touchstone, they rub it and they become
1405
01:02:14.599 --> 01:02:17.079
that thing that's the mythical thing of a touchstone or
1406
01:02:17.079 --> 01:02:22.159
a tasman. That becomes the halfpiracial part reflectional is I
1407
01:02:22.199 --> 01:02:24.239
own a Camaro, you own a Camaro. You and I
1408
01:02:24.280 --> 01:02:26.599
are in the same We're brothers. We're brothers, We're buddies.
1409
01:02:27.280 --> 01:02:29.519
That is what I think Hot Wheels accomplished through a
1410
01:02:29.559 --> 01:02:32.760
lot of work, through design and marketing and sales and
1411
01:02:32.760 --> 01:02:34.599
how it was done and kind of even how we
1412
01:02:34.639 --> 01:02:38.679
selected cars. That became. The thing that I thought was
1413
01:02:38.760 --> 01:02:43.280
most important was understanding the transfer in marketing from demographics
1414
01:02:43.280 --> 01:02:45.960
to marketing because bluntly, Pook I did a presentation at
1415
01:02:46.000 --> 01:02:48.039
Seeman and a guy at the very incident, you're talking
1416
01:02:48.039 --> 01:02:50.000
to words I don't understand. Make it simple, I said, Okay,
1417
01:02:50.719 --> 01:02:53.960
if I'm bear hunting, demographics, tell me the bears are
1418
01:02:54.000 --> 01:02:55.639
over there in that cave. Take your rifle, go to
1419
01:02:55.679 --> 01:02:59.039
that cave. That's demographics. It's a vector. Tell me where
1420
01:02:59.039 --> 01:03:02.239
to go. Where are they at? Psychographics draws the bear
1421
01:03:02.360 --> 01:03:05.719
to me because I'm part of the club. It's reflectional
1422
01:03:05.800 --> 01:03:09.000
or it's aspirational, and we live under the same mantra,
1423
01:03:09.119 --> 01:03:11.360
the same goals, the same image, be it false or not.
1424
01:03:12.039 --> 01:03:13.840
The trick is to give tools to kids, and this
1425
01:03:13.880 --> 01:03:16.039
is why I want to do educational stuff. Give tools
1426
01:03:16.039 --> 01:03:18.679
to kids where they make that transition from aspiration to
1427
01:03:18.800 --> 01:03:22.440
reflectional where they build on those things they aspire, they
1428
01:03:22.480 --> 01:03:25.639
find functional footprint and functional foundation to go to the
1429
01:03:25.639 --> 01:03:28.360
next step and express it further. That to me is
1430
01:03:28.360 --> 01:03:30.719
the big the big part other than the fact that
1431
01:03:30.760 --> 01:03:33.480
they are really cool. They're shiny, they're fun to play with,
1432
01:03:34.199 --> 01:03:36.320
and it's one of the reasons why from the beginning
1433
01:03:37.039 --> 01:03:39.800
there's only been one or two hot wheels in all
1434
01:03:39.840 --> 01:03:41.960
of the three hundred billion that they've made or whatever
1435
01:03:41.960 --> 01:03:44.840
it is, that there was a molded figure inside of
1436
01:03:44.880 --> 01:03:48.280
it because the first thing we do, we project ourselves
1437
01:03:48.280 --> 01:03:49.039
inside that car.
1438
01:03:49.440 --> 01:03:50.239
Yep, yep.
1439
01:03:50.840 --> 01:03:54.559
Love that. So it's simple. It has psychological roots to
1440
01:03:54.639 --> 01:03:58.320
it if you understand those things. And this is kind
1441
01:03:58.320 --> 01:04:01.480
of what I understood about licensing. I didn't know. I
1442
01:04:01.559 --> 01:04:04.039
kind of knew what I was doing, but I didn't
1443
01:04:04.039 --> 01:04:05.840
think it turned into a full time job. I knew
1444
01:04:05.840 --> 01:04:08.280
there was something there, but when I got the study
1445
01:04:08.320 --> 01:04:10.599
back that there was forty two million men, I went, Okay, now,
1446
01:04:10.639 --> 01:04:12.719
I think now I think I'm onto something here. And
1447
01:04:12.760 --> 01:04:16.360
God bless John handing to people at Mattel. They let
1448
01:04:16.440 --> 01:04:18.679
me turn my job into the job I wanted as
1449
01:04:18.719 --> 01:04:20.880
long as I got my regular job done, and back
1450
01:04:20.920 --> 01:04:22.519
in those days it was a fun place. Man Larry
1451
01:04:22.559 --> 01:04:25.239
and I could tell you stories about the gas station
1452
01:04:25.280 --> 01:04:28.960
we built inside the giant mural. Short story. We had
1453
01:04:29.000 --> 01:04:30.679
to build a conference room, and John Tatamy said, I
1454
01:04:30.719 --> 01:04:32.760
need a conference room. I need one office, one display
1455
01:04:32.760 --> 01:04:34.920
board and one gathering area. I said, does it that
1456
01:04:35.039 --> 01:04:36.679
be an office because this place, if we took down
1457
01:04:36.679 --> 01:04:38.679
all the designers toys, it look like a dentist office
1458
01:04:38.719 --> 01:04:40.000
in the area, goes, what do you think of? I said,
1459
01:04:40.079 --> 01:04:42.480
I want to build a gas station. And this was
1460
01:04:42.480 --> 01:04:43.679
as up to this is when I said, I want
1461
01:04:43.719 --> 01:04:46.119
to take the twin mill Deesima, goes Carson, where do
1462
01:04:46.159 --> 01:04:47.960
you get these ideas? We can't have a gas station,
1463
01:04:48.000 --> 01:04:49.880
to hear, a gas No, not a real gas station,
1464
01:04:50.480 --> 01:04:52.960
a mock up in the bay where the lift would be.
1465
01:04:53.039 --> 01:04:54.920
That's the conference room on the front of the pups here,
1466
01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:57.199
that's our work table. On the other side where the
1467
01:04:57.199 --> 01:04:59.519
office is. That'll be in an office for somebody. So
1468
01:04:59.559 --> 01:05:01.320
I said, as long as a budget is not more
1469
01:05:01.320 --> 01:05:03.880
than doing regular construction, you built a gas station, put
1470
01:05:03.880 --> 01:05:05.800
a Neon sign on top of it. Then the guy
1471
01:05:05.800 --> 01:05:07.880
who did all displays for toy Story said, let's paint
1472
01:05:07.920 --> 01:05:10.440
a mural. We had a three hundred foot long mural
1473
01:05:10.760 --> 01:05:12.559
of driving through the desert and when you turn the
1474
01:05:12.559 --> 01:05:14.239
corner you were in Hollywood with the palm trees and
1475
01:05:14.280 --> 01:05:17.280
the Hollywood side. It was phenomenal. Barbie built a dream
1476
01:05:17.320 --> 01:05:21.320
house after us, and then the game and puzzle people
1477
01:05:21.360 --> 01:05:24.400
built a theater front. All those things got torn down
1478
01:05:24.400 --> 01:05:26.000
and now then now the design Center's moved to a
1479
01:05:26.000 --> 01:05:28.280
brand new building and I hear it maybe just as
1480
01:05:28.280 --> 01:05:29.519
stale as the first ones.
1481
01:05:29.599 --> 01:05:33.440
Well hopefully hopefully someone will come along and liven that up. Yeah, yeah, no,
1482
01:05:33.639 --> 01:05:36.639
I love that. And and again, you know, you tapped
1483
01:05:36.679 --> 01:05:39.480
on something. I think that's important, and it's something that
1484
01:05:39.599 --> 01:05:41.800
I think David and I didn't really realize until we
1485
01:05:41.800 --> 01:05:44.480
went to our first Hot Wheels Collector Nationals. Is we're
1486
01:05:44.519 --> 01:05:47.639
a show about die cast cars, and there is die
1487
01:05:47.679 --> 01:05:51.880
cast collecting and then there's Hot Wheels collecting, and they
1488
01:05:51.880 --> 01:05:56.239
are two very different. Oh, it's like being into bikes
1489
01:05:56.320 --> 01:06:00.519
and being into Harley Davidson exactly. There's a and you know,
1490
01:06:00.639 --> 01:06:03.119
you can argue all day long that these other brands
1491
01:06:03.199 --> 01:06:05.920
make more accurate cars and they're more realistic and they've
1492
01:06:05.920 --> 01:06:08.000
got more details, so they got more features, and they're
1493
01:06:08.280 --> 01:06:11.280
cheaper and they're easier to get and you don't have
1494
01:06:11.320 --> 01:06:13.400
to line out the door to you know, get an
1495
01:06:13.519 --> 01:06:16.920
RLC car or whatever. It does not matter. It is
1496
01:06:17.039 --> 01:06:18.960
not the same without the flame. And I think that
1497
01:06:19.159 --> 01:06:21.679
real thing, that that stuff that you worked on with,
1498
01:06:21.840 --> 01:06:27.199
like understanding the the it's a tribe. It's not a brand.
1499
01:06:27.320 --> 01:06:30.320
It is a car company, but it is also a tribe.
1500
01:06:30.360 --> 01:06:35.239
We are Hot Wheels collectors. We we want our cars
1501
01:06:35.280 --> 01:06:37.760
to have this look, this field. They've got to roll
1502
01:06:37.800 --> 01:06:41.480
a certain way, they've got to have that look, that
1503
01:06:41.480 --> 01:06:45.039
that weight that you know, that that smell when you
1504
01:06:45.079 --> 01:06:48.360
open the package. Nothing smells like a Hot Wheel's car
1505
01:06:48.400 --> 01:06:51.599
when you open the package. And that is a smell
1506
01:06:51.679 --> 01:06:54.400
that still takes me back to being eight years old
1507
01:06:54.880 --> 01:06:57.599
and just like and it's just off gassing from paint,
1508
01:06:57.800 --> 01:07:00.800
but it's not. It's that's the new hot wheel smell.
1509
01:07:01.159 --> 01:07:01.360
You know.
1510
01:07:01.480 --> 01:07:07.559
It's like, yeah, it is I think unlike anything else.
1511
01:07:07.960 --> 01:07:10.480
You know, there there are other big brands. There's Barbie,
1512
01:07:10.519 --> 01:07:12.760
there's g I Joe, there's all these other things, but
1513
01:07:12.760 --> 01:07:18.360
but Hot Wheels is somehow transcendent of that because like
1514
01:07:18.400 --> 01:07:20.800
I said, there's one for everyone. It's not like you,
1515
01:07:20.800 --> 01:07:22.719
you know, you g I Joe, you got to be
1516
01:07:22.760 --> 01:07:26.000
a boy into soldier stuff or Barbie you know, is
1517
01:07:26.159 --> 01:07:30.360
geared more towards girls. But there is this universality to
1518
01:07:30.760 --> 01:07:32.320
you know, you get a bunch of get a bunch
1519
01:07:32.360 --> 01:07:35.360
of kids in a room, and eventually they're going to
1520
01:07:35.440 --> 01:07:37.559
be playing with the cars. You know that that you
1521
01:07:37.599 --> 01:07:40.000
know they it doesn't matter. Everybody's going to play with
1522
01:07:40.039 --> 01:07:43.880
the cars because of that experience. And again, I just
1523
01:07:44.039 --> 01:07:46.239
I love talking that psychology with you, and I just
1524
01:07:46.280 --> 01:07:49.159
love that that thought of the way that you kind
1525
01:07:49.159 --> 01:07:53.239
of got that opportunity to kind of elevate your kids
1526
01:07:53.239 --> 01:07:56.800
think to be adult collector the adult experience.
1527
01:07:57.159 --> 01:07:58.719
And they let me test a lot of theories and
1528
01:07:58.760 --> 01:08:00.679
real quick talk about conventions. So Larry and I used
1529
01:08:00.679 --> 01:08:02.559
to always go to the Hot West convention, but marketing
1530
01:08:02.559 --> 01:08:04.280
guys would go, and so Larry and I were when
1531
01:08:04.280 --> 01:08:06.320
Amy took over the convention's good great manly he gave
1532
01:08:06.360 --> 01:08:08.960
attention to them, did cars at ORLC club and focused
1533
01:08:09.000 --> 01:08:10.719
on them because they were always treated like the redhead
1534
01:08:10.719 --> 01:08:13.280
step child in the organization. The marketing guys didn't want
1535
01:08:13.280 --> 01:08:14.880
to deal with them because they were too demanding. I
1536
01:08:14.920 --> 01:08:16.399
will tell you a funny story though. You know, I
1537
01:08:16.439 --> 01:08:18.039
grew up with Snake and Mangos and they were great
1538
01:08:18.039 --> 01:08:21.319
guys to me. So I said, look now we're doing
1539
01:08:21.319 --> 01:08:22.920
convention stuff. I want to bring you guys and host
1540
01:08:22.960 --> 01:08:25.000
you at a convention. They go, oh. They're both like,
1541
01:08:25.399 --> 01:08:27.720
I don't know, nobody's going to know us. So we
1542
01:08:27.760 --> 01:08:29.680
get there. I pick them up. You know, tomlins in
1543
01:08:29.720 --> 01:08:31.399
Fountain Valley, not that far from me. Don's down in
1544
01:08:31.439 --> 01:08:32.760
San Diego. So Don drove up to me and we
1545
01:08:32.840 --> 01:08:34.000
drove over there, took them in, and we get there
1546
01:08:34.000 --> 01:08:35.479
and there's all these cars and there's stuff out front.
1547
01:08:35.479 --> 01:08:36.760
They go, man, it's a big deal. But yeah, you
1548
01:08:36.800 --> 01:08:39.079
get a lot of people here. So we walk in
1549
01:08:39.119 --> 01:08:41.119
and there's a long line. It's like about three hour
1550
01:08:41.159 --> 01:08:43.039
line weight and Tom goes, who are those people waiting for?
1551
01:08:43.039 --> 01:08:45.640
I said, that's your autograph line? And Don goes, you're
1552
01:08:45.680 --> 01:08:47.880
kidding me and my kids were there too, and my
1553
01:08:47.960 --> 01:08:49.760
kids were laughing and go, Dad, but all these guys,
1554
01:08:49.760 --> 01:08:51.640
my gosh. She would stands like, go shut up. Those
1555
01:08:51.680 --> 01:08:55.119
guys are paying your way through school. So we get
1556
01:08:55.119 --> 01:08:57.960
there and they're overwhelmed. I mean they're even Don, who
1557
01:08:58.199 --> 01:09:00.600
is not real emotionals like I camp lead this and
1558
01:09:00.640 --> 01:09:04.640
so at dinner later that night, they used always pay
1559
01:09:04.680 --> 01:09:06.119
practical jokes on me. And that's a the story for
1560
01:09:06.119 --> 01:09:10.479
the other day. But Don said to Tom said to Don, gosh,
1561
01:09:10.520 --> 01:09:12.159
if we knew that, you know, they always called me Corky.
1562
01:09:12.159 --> 01:09:13.720
If they knew Corky was gonna if we knew Corky
1563
01:09:13.760 --> 01:09:15.920
was gonna end up working at Hot Wheels, we would
1564
01:09:15.920 --> 01:09:18.399
have treated them better as a kid. Don takes a
1565
01:09:18.439 --> 01:09:20.439
couple of bites and goes, no, we wouldn't have if
1566
01:09:20.439 --> 01:09:24.640
they were blown away. You know how many people remembered
1567
01:09:24.640 --> 01:09:27.720
them and celebrated them and brought their cars out. Because really,
1568
01:09:28.520 --> 01:09:30.199
this is another thing. The Hot was did really well.
1569
01:09:30.239 --> 01:09:33.239
They were the first non automotive company in a major
1570
01:09:33.279 --> 01:09:36.119
market to sponsor drag racing, and it put them on
1571
01:09:36.159 --> 01:09:37.439
the map, and it put us on the map, and
1572
01:09:37.479 --> 01:09:39.880
it was a very symbiotic relationship. But it worked really well,
1573
01:09:40.520 --> 01:09:42.560
and it made kids want the cars he wore again
1574
01:09:42.760 --> 01:09:47.039
aspirational reflectional, So, yeah, they were blown away. It's been
1575
01:09:47.239 --> 01:09:51.199
it's been a gas to My wife always cracks up.
1576
01:09:51.199 --> 01:09:52.880
What Donald call me just out of the blue, just
1577
01:09:52.920 --> 01:09:55.960
to talk, and she goes, is that don per Doome again? Like, yeah,
1578
01:09:56.000 --> 01:09:58.399
sometimes he just supposed to talk about stuff. He's much
1579
01:09:58.439 --> 01:10:02.000
more mellow now, I think since Tom has passed and
1580
01:10:02.039 --> 01:10:03.720
we lost ed Pink and then I just saw Sid
1581
01:10:03.720 --> 01:10:06.920
Waterman passed away the engine builder. You know, it's been
1582
01:10:06.920 --> 01:10:08.960
we're losing our heroes. So it's good you guys are
1583
01:10:09.079 --> 01:10:11.159
getting guys like Larry Wood and other guys to talk.
1584
01:10:11.199 --> 01:10:13.439
Have you got Bob Rosa on yet? There's another good one?
1585
01:10:13.520 --> 01:10:13.560
No?
1586
01:10:13.720 --> 01:10:14.680
Yeah, we'd love to have him.
1587
01:10:14.760 --> 01:10:17.920
Yeah, he's good early history. So I appreciate you letting
1588
01:10:17.920 --> 01:10:20.960
me tell my crazy stories, but and appreciate the recognition.
1589
01:10:21.039 --> 01:10:23.840
It was, like I said, it was a fun job
1590
01:10:23.920 --> 01:10:25.840
and they let me turn it into what I wanted
1591
01:10:25.880 --> 01:10:27.199
it to be as long as I met needs and
1592
01:10:27.239 --> 01:10:30.039
grew a market. Which with that, I always viewed myself
1593
01:10:30.079 --> 01:10:32.880
more of an entrepreneur than an entrepreneur. I built a
1594
01:10:32.880 --> 01:10:34.039
business from within a business.
1595
01:10:34.520 --> 01:10:38.560
Yeah so that was a bad Yeah, that that's awesome.
1596
01:10:38.680 --> 01:10:41.960
I really again, thank you again for hanging out with us.
1597
01:10:42.039 --> 01:10:46.560
That's that's what I've as as a fellow marketing type guy.
1598
01:10:46.720 --> 01:10:49.560
I've always really like, like, oh man, I would love
1599
01:10:49.560 --> 01:10:51.560
to talk to Carson because I know the kind of
1600
01:10:51.560 --> 01:10:55.760
stuff that you did in your time at Mattel. And again,
1601
01:10:55.840 --> 01:10:58.039
this is just like catnip to me. So I appreciate
1602
01:10:58.079 --> 01:10:59.159
you indulging.
1603
01:10:58.720 --> 01:11:01.960
My Thank you, Thank you for stories. Always go along.
1604
01:11:02.359 --> 01:11:05.439
I look forward Carson to episode two. We'll get more stories.
1605
01:11:06.000 --> 01:11:07.880
It's been an absolute pleasure tonight.
1606
01:11:08.439 --> 01:11:10.840
Thank you guys, well, thank you Carson, and thank you
1607
01:11:10.880 --> 01:11:13.800
watchers listeners wherever you are for making it to the
1608
01:11:13.920 --> 01:11:16.199
end of another die Cast breakdown. If you've made it
1609
01:11:16.239 --> 01:11:17.960
this far, make sure you leave the little comment lending
1610
01:11:18.039 --> 01:11:20.640
us know you're part of the closed down crew. We
1611
01:11:20.680 --> 01:11:22.319
love our people who make it all the way to
1612
01:11:22.359 --> 01:11:24.520
the end of the videos. And you know, while you're
1613
01:11:24.560 --> 01:11:26.800
down there, make sure you're hitting the like subscribe to
1614
01:11:26.840 --> 01:11:30.520
share all those little buttons just click them. That makes
1615
01:11:30.600 --> 01:11:33.920
us real happy. And again, check out at drivendreams dot
1616
01:11:34.039 --> 01:11:36.760
org are project where we're raising twenty five thousand cars
1617
01:11:36.760 --> 01:11:39.680
for kids in need all over the world. And as always,
1618
01:11:39.680 --> 01:11:41.039
we want to thank you for coming along with us
1619
01:11:41.039 --> 01:11:44.359
for the ride. So until next time, stay reshcheese bags.
1620
01:11:45.760 --> 01:11:48.760
Thanks for listening to die Cast Breakdown. If you enjoy
1621
01:11:48.880 --> 01:11:52.279
today's show, please rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts
1622
01:11:52.479 --> 01:11:55.399
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1623
01:11:55.439 --> 01:11:59.840
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01:11:59.880 --> 01:12:02.560
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01:12:04.600 --> 01:12:08.439
Die Cast Breakdown is a presentation of Flying Valiant and
1626
01:12:08.560 --> 01:12:10.279
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