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The Wait For It Podcast
Hosted by MrEricAlmighty and PhilTheFilipino, the guys discuss all things in Pop Culture from movies, gaming, anime and anything in between. New episodes every Wednesday, all you have to do is...WAIT FOR IT!
The Wait For It Podcast
Creator Spotlight: Victor Larson (NomNom Verse)
Victor Larson joins us to share his incredible journey building NomNom, a unique trading card role-playing game that blends elements from TCGs, tabletop RPGs, and board games into an immersive gaming experience set in a world where "all doorways lead to NomNom."
• Created the world of NomNom as a creative playground for his diverse artistic interests
• Designed a unique setting where ancient technologies and civilizations create a sci-fi world that feels like fantasy
• Developed innovative gameplay where players assemble three-champion parties to navigate through sector-card dungeons
• Believes in the creative practice of "pastiche" - learning from others' art forms to develop your own unique style
• Collaborating with voice actor Bryce Papenbrook, who will voice a main character in upcoming NomNom stories
Follow Victor and the NomNom-Verse HERE!
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Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment. Wait for it Gaming. Wait for it Anime.
Speaker 2:PLUS ULTRA.
Speaker 1:Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino. Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do is wait for it.
Speaker 2:This is the Wait For it Podcast. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Wait For it Podcast. I'm your co-host, phil Barrera, aka Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 3:And I'm your other co-host, Mr Eric Almighty, and for this edition of Creator Spotlight, we have a very special guest that we met through the convention scene, specifically if you were here in Jacksonville at Bold Matsuri, we were able to have the pleasure to meet this individual and Phil. That's the thing I love the most about conventions is we get to meet great people like our guests today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we just continue to add to our infinity stone of creators every time we go to Bold or Collective or Ocala, comic-con or Brick City, whatever it may be. So, you know, we've had voice actors on, we've had so many, you know, so many other artists and so many other people that we've gotten to meet from all across the creative mindset and the creative board and very excited to bring in Victor Larson of NomNom. Victor, how are you doing here tonight? Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1:Thank you guys for having me. I'm doing wonderful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, super excited to get into this conversation. We have a lot to talk about when it comes to NomNom and also just getting to know you as a creator, as well as playing a fun game here at the end of this episode. So, if you're new to the podcast maybe you're coming from the Nom Nomverse or if you just found us for the first time and you want to know how to keep up with everything that Victor is up to, as well as the way for a podcast, make sure you stick around to the very end and we'll let you know where you can find all of that. But, victor, to bring it back to you, please introduce yourself. Let us know what it is that you do and all of that well, first and foremost I am a illustrator.
Speaker 1:That's how I kind of broke on to the the scene that I'm in, uh, with trading cards and tabletop gaming. I was discovered on Instagram and my very first job within the TCG realm was MetaZoo. I worked for them as an art director and artist for about three years and then I left that company to kind of start my own adventure, which led me to developing my own trading card game, which is Nom Nom Verse. The world of Nom Nom itself is something I have been working on for roughly the last decade give or take. The world itself is pretty much to summarize. It is kind of a playground for my imagination to go crazy with.
Speaker 1:My interests are kind of all over the place. You know, along with many of us, you know, we like so many different fandoms and stuff, and so I have a lot of different inspirations coming in from so many different angles that at one point, as a young artist, I was working on anything from characters to creatures, kaiju dinosaurs to samurai ninjas just so many different interests and one day I was kind of sitting there like I kind of I need something to like harbor all of these creations into one project so that, no matter what I worked on, it could all kind of go towards something, because as a illustrator, you're often asked to work on something over and over and over and over and that can be a little bit draining and you can feel a little bit caged as a creative. So I wanted something as chaotic as the creations that I make. So thus the world of Nom Nom was born, the world itself. It exists in the crosshairs between, or the crossroads between, dimensions and universes. I have a saying that goes all doorways lead to nom nom. It's pretty much this ancient planet that is so sci-fi that it feels like fantasy. Sci-fi that it feels like fantasy. So it many, many civilizations have built itself up on this world, only to be wiped out and then built upon again to be wiped out, and so it has all these ancient technologies and weird artifacts and relics left over from previous civilizations that I guess you could say the time period that the current setting takes place kind of feels.
Speaker 1:Industrial. People are starting to figure out this world that they live in and, as chaotic as it is, people are starting to get comfortable. Luxury is becoming a thing within the world. But yeah, it's got everything.
Speaker 1:I can kind of go off on tangents, so just slow me down if I get too deep here. But it's very much like industrial and you know, people are starting to get comfortable and I guess that's where things start to go awry, if you will. People are getting too comfortable and people are starting to make the mistakes that we see very much in the real world. And yeah, without digging too deep here, here the world of nom nom has everything. There's a lot of stones to turn, a lot of paths that you can take in this world and nom nom verse the trading card game, or I like to call it a trading card role-playing game, and we can get into like gameplay a little bit later. But nomnomverse itself kind of takes a little bit of everything from the whole world and kind of squishes it into this, uh, trading card role-playing game that I've developed yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:and know the. As far as the designs, they are truly unique, which I'm sure is really difficult to do in the TCG space. You know as, as far as for me, I've never really gotten into playing a TCG. I've always been more so of a collector and anything that looks truly unique that would be really fun to display, like the Nom Nom creations have that I actually remember seeing you guys. You guys were at Spookala earlier in the year, right Am.
Speaker 1:I.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool, and I remember every time I walked by the table like it was packed, so that's always really, really great to see. So what kind of maybe challenges do you see when you're creating these creatures to truly make them unique and avoid the inevitable Pokemon? You know it's. What are we like? Five minutes in Pokemon was going to come up. So how do you avoid those comparisons and make sure that you ensure that you're making something truly unique?
Speaker 1:Well, that's a great question, and I don't think you really do. It's truly hard to create something 100% original. I mean, you ask any artist that does have an original, whether it be art style or whatever they're creating, whether it's music, art, you know, movies, books, everybody's inspired by something, and just a good example of this is take jjrr token. You have the lords of the ring, which, without lords of the ring, a lot of the Ring, which, without Lords of the Ring, a lot of the fantasy that we have today wouldn't exist. But even Token, you know, had inspirations from religion. So, to answer your question, though I don't think it's so much hiding the fact that he said Pokemon, you know, hiding the fact that he said Pokemon, you know, like my art style definitely resonates somewhat with a Pokemon-esque style, but that's simply because I grew up with it. You know, all three of us grew up with Pokemon, you know, through the nineties and early two thousands, and you know all the anime that we have watched over the years. I think it's simply not to hide that, but to embrace it, embrace the inspirations that you have.
Speaker 1:When young artists come up to me and they ask me, how do I get to where you are, I simply just tell them don't be afraid to dive into your inspirations, dive into what you like, because there's actually a word for this. It's called pastiche. I think I'm saying that right. It means to practice in another one's art form, and there's nothing wrong with it. You know, a lot of young artists are worried well, I don't want to be called an art thief and stuff. Artists are worried well, I don't want to be called an art thief and stuff, and I totally get that. But if you feel like you are riffing too hard on another artist or another creator, simply give credit, for credit is due and there's nothing wrong with that. But what I believe is a very strong practice is pastiche. You know, practice in other people's art form.
Speaker 1:Because what happens is, once you've done that and then come back to your own drawing board and your own way of developing things, you always come back with something new, like there's something that you learned from those practices that really resonates with you, whatever that is.
Speaker 1:And so when you come back and you're trying to develop your own unique style or what makes you as an individual stand out, you'll find that you pick up these skills or techniques that you really like and you add that to your repertoire and as you do more and more of that, you begin to cultivate something unique.
Speaker 1:So when you look at Nam Nam and I think over the last few years people have come up to me and they're like, oh, this really reminds me of this or this really reminds me of that, and it's just funny to me because it's like people can pinpoint those inspirations and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. So to all you young artists out there, do it, practice in another one's art form and if you feel like you are overstaying your welcome, give credit, give shoutouts to the people that inspire you. You never know when your heroes might notice you and compliment your artwork and stuff. So I encourage people to not limit themselves by staying in their own lane for lack of a better explanation, but go crazy, try what inspires you. You know at least once and you'll. You'll be surprised what you come back to your own palette with and you'll grow, you'll. You'll grow more and more each time you do this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's really great advice. And, victor, you know, one of the things that I think really speaks to what you're saying is, you know, having that artistic integrity like that's huge right, like especially in your work and your line of work. I think one of the questions that I find interesting, based off of our conversation so far, is just the fact that you said that you've been working on Nom Nom for over a decade. You obviously have so many influences that go into that and so many creativity that's flowing over the years. So what has that experience been like? What are some of the highs and the lows of working on a project with so much dedication, so much passion, so much heart over all of these years and seeing some things come to fruition and, I'm sure, some things that didn't? I'd be really interested to know, like, what your experience has been like over the past decade, if you can boil that down for our audience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll do my best. So I was actually working in a road construction before I set out to pursue art. I was about 25, 26 years old and I will be 33 in August, and I was miserable. I was working 12-hour days and to me it felt like I was working myself into an early grave, and why? You know, I didn't have any kids, didn't have a wife, so I was just like why not pursue art, something I've always wanted to do? So pretty much I quit my job, I just quit. I got a part-time job at Michael's discounts on art supplies and I got a part-time job at a gym Stay in shape, stay active and I started to really dig my heels into my craft. You know, sharpen my tools if you will.
Speaker 1:And, um, I didn't really know what I was doing. You know, I've been drawing ever since I was a kid, pretty much ever since anime hit america really hard back in the 90s when dragon ball z blew up, pokemon blew up. The little me back then was just in love with the art style, the animation and stuff, and that's kind of where it all started. So I've kind of been an artist my whole life. But how do I make that a career, I guess pretty much. I had been off of social media for a good like three, four years at this point in time and I was just like, well, how do I get myself out there? You know and this is right around the time that Instagram was really really popular it was kind of like before TikTok came out and took off and stuff. So what I did was, you know, I started, I started back up my social medias and I figured if I really want to get myself out there, that would be a good platform to do so. So I started posting my art and still not really knowing what I'm doing, I just did my best to practice my craft and show people, to practice my craft and show people.
Speaker 1:And a few years went by, working part-time jobs while trying to focus on my art, trying to sell it, which is very funny because you know at one point in your art career like you're super excited just to get somebody to buy your art. Like I remember doing sketch cards for $10 a commission and if anybody got a commission, like that was the biggest deal to me. And I remember like the first time I ever had somebody outside of the United States buy one of my sketch cards too, I was just like, oh my God, I'm an international artist now. Sketch cards too. I was just like, oh my God, I'm an international artist now.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it was just all about just trying new things and really just getting myself out there, cause you know a lot of artists, being a creative it's very personable and putting yourself out there can be really hard because you open yourself up to criticism, which I did attend college for a short period of time just to try it out, and I did take an art course during that time. And one of the first things they'll teach you is how to properly criticize and how to critique, if you will, someone else's art. And I totally get why it's one of the first lessons they teach you, because, since it is so personable and art is so subjective, I mean somebody could be really scared to put themselves out there, and the moment they do, someone bashes them, which is like a turtle in their shell. You know they finally stepped out of their comfort zone and someone jabbed them with a stick and now they're back in their shell. So it can be really hard to do, but I, just, like I said, I just dug my heels in and just went for it and a few years went by and I finally got noticed by somebody. His name's Mike Waddell. He was the original creator of a game called MetaZoo and he reached out to me pretty much asking me hey, would you be interested in creating a trading card game? And I get this message and it's like yeah, ever since I was a kid. So I saw that as my moment, my opportunity, and so I started doing artwork for MetaZoo and it started to gain traction Zoo and it started to gain traction. So I took another chance at the whole art thing and I quit my part-time job, which at this time I was working at a bus company. I was pretty much putting in like first aid kits and fire extinguishers into school buses right before they went out the door, extinguishers into school buses right before they went out the door. And I quit that job to work full time on MetaZoo.
Speaker 1:And you were talking about the highs and lows, eric. There was many moments when I was just like, did I put too many eggs in this basket? But I definitely believe. You know, if you truly believe in what you're doing, bet on yourself. Bet on yourself over and over again, even if it doesn't work out the first time, just keep on betting on yourself, because if you're truly passionate, it will eventually work out for you. What's the saying Fake it till you make it Like, believe it or not, like I really do feel like it works eventually. People want instant gratification, which is understandable. But I mean, I was always kind of fine with the. If I'm 60, 60 years old and it finally works out out, I was fine with that. But at the time when I was doing all this, my whole theory was like, if this doesn't work out by the time I'm 30, I can always get another job and kind of start over with a new career that way.
Speaker 1:But MetaZoo eventually did kind of take off and it it was crazy actually it took off quite a bit. Um, at one point metazoo was, you know, on billboards and times square and stuff. So we were at new york comic-con and I eventually was traveling a lot from convention to convention and we were doing more and more sets and it just worked out for me, you know, and I definitely feel like luck was on my side because there's so many talented artists out there. Mike Waddell could have messaged hundreds of different artists. But if you get that opportunity. Don't be scared to take it. It might not work out, but it will eventually work out. If you lean into something, it's bound to work eventually.
Speaker 1:But eventually it got to the point where I wasn't happy with MetaZoo. Point where I wasn't happy with MetaZoo. I wasn't like miserable either, but I just felt like I have way too much up here in my noggin. You know that I need to get out there, and with MetaZoo I felt somewhat caged. Metazoo is a game about cryptids and stuff. So Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, mothman, things like that, and so all that stuff is great, really cool.
Speaker 1:But I had all these own ideas of mine that I wanted to get out there. So I left the company and I started my own studio, senpai Studio. And through Senpai Studio I had people reach out to me previous fans of mine that followed me through my work with MetaZoo, and I didn't really know what I was going to do. Everybody was like looking to me you know, what are you going to do next? What are you going to do next? I worked on a few other games. I did art for a few other tabletop games and it eventually came to me.
Speaker 1:You know, I was like well, before MetaZoo I had been working on Nom Nom and I put that on the back burner. So I just like, well, I got a perfect IP to develop and flesh out and it was nom nom. So I started working on that again and I had people reach out to me saying they, they wanted to be part of the thing that I was working on next. So it slowly grew over the last three years.
Speaker 1:It went through many different phases and we eventually asked ourselves what do we all know, what do we all love? And we all stood on the same common ground of trading card games. So that's inevitably what it became. But we didn't want to just create another indie TCG God knows there's plenty of those out there. So we really wanted to do something different. So we were like, well, what if we took board games and tabletop RPGs like Dungeons, dragons and what we know, which is trading card games? And we kind of mushed all of these together and thus Nom Nom Verse was born, which is trading card games. And we kind of mushed all of these together and thus nom nom verse was born. So, eric, I feel like I was all over the place, you know answering your question but uh, yeah, so pretty much to to answer your questions.
Speaker 1:You know there's going to be a lot of highs and lows when you're chasing a dream and I could get get more into that if you guys like. But seriously, just lean into it. If you have a good idea, it's worth chasing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think you did a great job kind of giving us an overview I mean again, a decade is such a long time and to be able to tell your story. We're glad that we're able to do that and have our audience hear a little bit more about the journey. Because, phil, I think you know you could definitely speak to this as well We've definitely been big believers in just doing it Like if we haven't learned anything in the world of podcasting, content creation in the convention scene and all the things that we're working on now, like Phil right, that's like our biggest thing. So, yeah, what Victor was talking about there really spoke to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how many guests have we had on or people we've talked to at conventions where they're like well, I started off in this and then I ended up where I am now, so it's never linear. Like one of the best examples, like remember, a couple of years ago we had Adasa on, who voices Dolores from Encanto, and she was a singer. She didn't have a lot of momentum but she was putting out videos on YouTube and a Disney executive saw her YouTube video and reached out to her Right and then that's amazing, she's an Encanto.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like that. That's how that goes. I watched that last night with my girlfriend. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean a huge, huge film. Huge film, you know, made a ton of money, so and then now she's part of the disney family for life. So, uh, you never know who's going to reach out to you. Like I started off doing listeners have heard this before I 10 years ago, I thought I wanted to do stand-up comedy all the time, and then it was, and, and I still, of course, want to do podcasting full-time as well, but then that led into voice acting. You know what I mean, and Eric and I have had this conversation and I think it's hard for people who and this is no shade Everybody has their own journey, but people who aren't necessarily focused on a creative journey.
Speaker 2:It's hard for people to understand when someone just leaves or just focuses on their dream, and I think that's something that, no matter where you come from, so, like as an artist, like how many of our artist friends that we talked to, like they just went for it because they were miserable at a nine to five, they didn't want to work 12 hour shifts like you're talking about.
Speaker 2:So, and while it is possible to still do those things on the side, like all of us can't you know, I still have a 95. I still have a day job. We still got day jobs. But when you're off the clock and you want to work on something that you're truly passionate about, like that will show through, you know, and maybe you don't end up doing exactly what you thought you were going to do, but you'll figure out where it is that you're you're supposed to be. So all of that is is really, really great. I would love to know because you did kind of hint at it a little bit earlier as far as the mechanics of the game. As somebody who, again, I didn't really dabble into the actual TCG, I know Eric would play with his siblings in cheat, so he knows all about that.
Speaker 3:You don't have to bring it up.
Speaker 2:I feel like you love to bring it up, so I don't know.
Speaker 3:You don't have to bring it up. I feel like you love to bring it up, so I don't know.
Speaker 2:I may or may not have summoned the heart of the cards playing Yu-Gi-Oh, because I had the last card.
Speaker 3:I needed under the rug or carpet that we were playing on that may or may not have happened, but it led to the best moments, just like the anime.
Speaker 1:We call it cheating, eric calls it top decking.
Speaker 2:There we go, there we go call it cheating, eric calls it top decking. There we go. So whenever you're creating something brand new and you're responsible for how the mechanics work and the rules and everything like that, how do you manage that? Because it's one thing to do the illustrations and to bring the characters to to print, but how do you go about actually telling people? Here's how you play, and is there a lot of trial and error in that too?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so I did not do it alone. I did have a team around me, not a big team, but I did have my friend, johnny Dunn. So shout out to Johnny. He became my research and development guy but in the early stages, during alpha testing and stuff, it was just me and him late nights. He actually lives over in Montana, so in fact none of the team was here in Minnesota with me.
Speaker 1:So a lot of late nights on Discord discussing trial and error, flying him out to Minnesota to run alpha testing and stuff on multiple occasions and yeah, a lot goes into it, in fact a lot more than and I'm sure anybody that has you guys included you know, when you you got an idea and then you start that idea and then all of a sudden you realize what am I doing? Yeah, no, it's just like, oh well, we need to do this and we need to do that and oh well, we forgot about this. It's. It's crazy how much stuff goes into certain projects that you don't even think about until you're doing it. It's like starting a business Well, do you have business insurance? It's just like, uh, no, I didn't even think about that. Well, what if somebody walks in the door and slips. Like I started an art game studio. I didn't really think of somebody slipping on my floor, you know. So, yeah, so much goes into it and I was lucky to have the team that I had around me. They were also very passionate and we were very, you know, all of us were very inexperienced. You know, all of us were very inexperienced. Speaking of highs and lows, eric, recently my team stepped away from the project. Nom Nom Verse is still very much going and I'd be more than happy to talk more about this, but there's just so much that goes into it from marketing, advertising, taxes, just the whole nine yards that we got to a point where we just needed so much more than what we knew we could do, what we knew how to do, that we all literally had to take a step back and kind of do what was best for each of us, you know, as individuals. However, that's all part of it. It's like sometimes you just got to take a step back to look at the big picture again and then zero in and work out the details.
Speaker 1:But as far as, like the gameplay goes, we knew we wanted to create. You know me and Johnny, we knew we. We knew what we liked. We had a vague picture in our head of what we wanted the game to be, but it all felt like uncharted territory, uncharted waters, and we set sail anyway and we started to mess around with gameplay. We started off with what we knew and, like I said, we kind of combined elements from trading card games to like Dungeons, dragons, tabletop RPGs and board games classic, you know, japanese role-playing games, you know like elements from video games as well, and we just started like kind of okay, we kind of want this, we kind of want this, and we just kind of brought all these ideas and then we started kind of slowly piecing it all together, kind of slowly piecing it all together.
Speaker 1:And so, as far as the gameplay of Nom Nom Verse goes, you can really see that when you sit down and start to learn how to play, essentially what you're trying to do in a game of Nom Nom Verse is you're trying to put together a party of champions heroes, if you will and it's a party of three, that classic party of three the warrior, the mage and the rogue and you're leveling them up, you're equipping powerful artifacts to them, you're incorporating relics and other powerful items to. Essentially, you're taking your party and you're going into what we call the dungeon, which is made up of five sector cards. You put up five sector cards and your opponent puts up five sector cards and these sector cards resemble places within Nom Nom, like, for instance, one sector card is Zoe's garage and I actually sent you guys an illustration of Zoe so you guys can check her out, but she has a garage and that's one of the cards. So these sectors make up what we call the dungeon and you move your champions through this dungeon back and forth, you know strategically, to take down your opponent's boss and you also have a boss, and then. So on the left side of the field you have your champions and then on the right side of the field you have your what we call nomsters, which are just like creatures, animals from the world of nom nom, and these nomsters are kind of your, your defense, because your party is going up against their nomsters and their boss, while on the other side, their party is going up against your nomsters and your boss. So you kind of have these two different games being played on each side of the dungeon and there's two win cons you can either KO their boss or you can KO their entire party, which is all three champions. Both will yield you a win.
Speaker 1:However, we do have like tournament formats too, where it's more based off of, like a point system. So most trading card games can take place within an hour. Most trading card games can take place within an hour. Since we did kind of develop like this whole new gaming experience. Our games can last quite a bit longer in some cases. Sometimes they can wrap up within 30 minutes, sometimes they can take almost two hours, and we kind of felt okay with this, since we were kind of combining all these different elements. But, yeah, we were like, well, all these different elements. But yeah, we, we were like, well, what if we don't have two hours? What if we want to wrap this up quicker? So we created a point system and so, yeah, I feel like I'm kind of getting lost in my own thoughts right now, but no, pretty much game gameplay took us about two years to develop and Nom Nom itself, the world of Nom Nom, went through many stages, like at one point we weren't even going to be a tabletop game.
Speaker 1:We were actually discussing being a mobile game that incorporated like NFTs, if you will. However, I personally didn't feel comfortable opening that can of fishhooks. But I felt like creating NFTs with like utility would be really cool. Like imagine you're playing Mortal Kombat and you're not just using Sub-Zero, you actually own the Sub-Zero in the game. That's kind of what we wanted to create at one point, too, where it was still like a card, a collectible card. Like you got a pack of cards, but on these cards you would have like QR codes that you would scan into this mobile game and then you had those pieces to use in the game. So yeah, like it went through many stages before we landed on what it became yeah, lots of, and we hear that a lot with.
Speaker 2:Whatever the creative process may be like, it started off as one thing and then ended up that ended up ultimately being better for the, the whole process. So that's. That's very interesting and, eric, we're no stranger to evolving as the time goes on, especially here at the podcast. The rip to those episodes no one will ever hear.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, and and again, I think as you're growing there's there's always the uh desire to not look back at stuff that you kind of view with different eyes because you have different experiences now. Uh, that's always, I think, the interesting part of being a creator. But just kind of pivoting a little bit into the conversation, victor, I would love to know a little bit. When we talk about pop culture in general, one of the things we really like to dive into you mentioned some of the early days and some of those early influences. Just kind of in the last five years you know, keeping it in the 2020s what have been projects that have either inspired you or really engrossed you into their worlds or their franchises, whether you take those inspirations or just as a fan, consuming that genre or that media, what have you been enjoying here in, like the last couple of years?
Speaker 1:or that media. What have you been enjoying here in, like, the last couple of years? That's actually a really good question, eric, because over the last five years I've honestly fell off of the anime train quite a bit. That's not to say that I haven't, you know, watched Attack on Titan and my Hero and Demon Slayer and all these other great new modern animes and stuff. But man, it's a little upsetting because I have so much that I want to watch and stuff. But I guess when you're working on your own projects and stuff you can kind of fall kind of behind on, uh, the latest pulp culture references and stuff.
Speaker 1:Like, for instance, I've seen that, uh, that tiger from, uh, k-pop hunter uh everywhere and I had no idea where it was from and until literally just today and I was like, oh, that that's from k-pop hunter, whatever, demon hunter, yeah, and I had no idea, you know. So, honestly, I'm trying to think of like a current, like favorite of mine, yeah, yeah and it can be in the world of anime.
Speaker 3:it can be, you know, a television show you finally picked out of your queue and just really got you gripped. It could be be a movie, a video game, really anything under the sun that has kind of really gripped you in any way. Maybe it tugged a heartstring, maybe it evoked an emotion, or you just thought it was really fucking cool, like K-pop Demon Hunters for me.
Speaker 1:And I also feel like a lot of the stuff that I've currently been watching is stuff from like longer ago, like I finally just watched Breaking Bad all the way through for the first time, which I feel like I'm I'm really late to that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, those fit the description perfectly. I mean we do a series called Late to the Party where we literally just touch on pop culture classics that we missed out on. So love to hear anybody watching Breaking Bad for the first time. That's a great, great show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you might have to invite me to that show because, like, let's see, I just recently watched. My girlfriend introduced me to a movie called the Boy and the Beast. I'd say that's one of my current new favorites. I'm huge into Godzilla. All the Godzilla Give me more. So what Legendary has been doing with the Monsterverse? I've really enjoyed that. Yes, love it you might. Actually. I got some, uh, some godzilla merchandise. I got a shelf of godzillas in this room.
Speaker 2:I feel you nice, nice.
Speaker 1:I'm really into kaiju, which I still haven't watched. Kaiju number eight. So pretty disappointing, I know, but uh, it is on my list. I just recently re-watched gurren lagann with my girlfriend. Um, I'd say that is top three for me. See, I grew up with naruto like that. That was my show growing up.
Speaker 1:I love my hero. I love the art for my Hero, which, since I got my Hero brought up here, I love what the artist did, how he took kind of a Western comic book style incorporated into the manga style. That's something that I was also trying to do, but I guess kind of reverse with my style. I'm a big fan of self-shading and stuff like that. Growing up, my dad is a huge comic book collector. I'd say that's kind of how I became who I am today was at a very young age being shown Spider-Man and DC and Marvel and stuff. Vinland Saga I love vinland saga. I need to catch up on it, but uh, very much enjoyed vinland saga I I love, uh, when it comes to like storytelling, I I like when a story doesn't pull punches, which is probably one of the reasons I enjoyed Breaking Bad so bad, so much is. I love when storytellers aren't afraid to kill off your favorite character.
Speaker 2:Have consequences.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just feel like a good storyteller when done right. I love when somebody can, like like you said, pull at your heartstrings and make you sad about a fictional character that doesn't exist, you know which. Not to go off off track here, uh, too much. But I'm actually good friends with bryce pappenbrook and he's actually an advocate for Nom Nom Verse and he's also agreed to do the voice of Ralph, who is the main character within the very first story I plan to tell within the world of Nom Nom on track. I think one of the reasons bryce is one of the most celebrated voice actors in english dubbed anime is because he is so emotional and he really really digs in deep to his characters and stuff and I I think that's one of the reasons people like subbed, overdubbed is. And not to throw shade at any of the voice actors here in america, but I feel like one thing that and maybe it's because of the, the language you know, uh, but japanese voice actors are so emotional and really, you know, bring it to the table when they're doing their voice acting and stuff that I feel like one voice actor here in America that does that very well is Bryce and so huge fan of the work that Bryce has put out. From you know, attack on Titan to Sword Art Online has put out. From you know, attack on titan to sword art online.
Speaker 1:I'm a big studio ghibli fan. I love studio ghibli very much enjoyed, uh, the boy and the heron. I'd say porco rosso is probably my favorite ghibli movie. Oh, um yeah, why do you say?
Speaker 3:that, uh, phil. Phil is a resident, uh, studio ghibli hater, but oh, really, uh. But I mean to be fair, he's only seen three films, uh, and we did both see porco rosso and it. Uh, it did not hit unfortunately.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, honestly, did you watch it when?
Speaker 3:it came out, though, like or like. Not when it came out, but like, obviously either around that time or like has it been a while since you watched it, because we watched it with 20-20 eyes, so, like in the 2020s, I don't know how someone would react to that movie for the first time. So, like, was that an early influence on you or something recent?
Speaker 1:So Porco Rosso came out the year I was born, so, but I actually experienced Porco Rosso during my tenure in college. I was actually the president of the anime club, and so I got to experience Porco Rosso for the first time through anime club, which was almost 10 years ago. And one thing I love about Studio Ghibli is the storytelling that takes place in Studio Ghibli movies are so, so imaginative. They're very, very chaotic in a sense that sometimes it's hard to follow. You know it's like you blink and the next thing you know you're in a completely different world. It's like you blink and in the next thing you know you're in a completely different world. So yeah, I guess Porco Rosso for me.
Speaker 1:I'm a big Michael Keaton fan, so I've also noticed that in the English dubbed versions of Studio Ghibli movies, almost every single Batman has been in a Studio Ghibli movie, from Robert Pattinson to Christian Bale as Hal, from Howl's Moving Castle to Michael Keaton as Porco. I've always kind of enjoyed that. I don't know if it's intentional, but at this point I feel like it is. It's gotta be.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's why Ben Affleck's Batman failed. Has he been in a Ghibli film?
Speaker 1:Nope, maybe he needs to. So there you go. Who knows, who knows, he might be though, or might eventually, but I'm curious which movies have you seen, phil?
Speaker 2:We have watched the Boy and the Heron Porco Rosso and Spirited Away. Okay.
Speaker 3:We've watched that for the podcast. I've casually watched Howl's Moving Castle, kiki's Delivery Service. I've seen a little bit more to know. They're nice films. I think the one I like the most is Spirited Away. But even on the first watch I did not vibe with the movie very well. I didn't mesh with it because you described it perfectly as something that you loved about it. That's exactly probably how we feel about them watching it a second time I went in with a little bit more of that like expectation.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I was pleasantly surprised and that's very much a vibe movie Like.
Speaker 3:If that movie is on, I would a hundred percent sit down and watch it and I'd maybe even show it to somebody else, but it'd probably be with that expectation of you. Know, it's a very fantastical type of movie. You kind of have to move not only suspension of belief to the side but also just like your expectations personally of what you're expecting a film to give you, because this movie is only interested in giving you what it wants to give you. And that can be a good thing and I think that's how a lot of studio ghibli films have been. We're gonna see whether or not it's a miyazaki thing, because I have been telling phil I'm gonna watch grave of the fireflies, which is a ghibli film, but it's not a miyazaki film and uh, that's a contender for a late to the party and I'd like to see because that's a movie people hold up in high regard. I'm very curious to see if you know that that is the one that hits and maybe it's a Miyazaki thing and we're just not in the same wavelength as him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, miyazaki is definitely a very unique individual, hard to pin down. In fact, I've read a couple articles about him that kind of leave you scratching your head, because I guess his son was the one that worked on the Wizard of Earthsea adaptation of Studio Ghibli. And I love the Tales from Earthsea book. I think it's a great read, but apparently Miyazaki walked out of it and it's just like well dang, his own son worked on that and he walked out of it.
Speaker 1:I do not know if this is like 100% true or not you never know what you're reading on the internet but I have read that I guess he's a pretty depressed individual and I think it's interesting because of what he puts out there too, because you watch his movies and it's these beautiful worlds, artistically, you know it's, it's beautiful, even if you don't enjoy the stories that are being told. You have to admit like the art that goes into it is very fantastic pieces of work. But then you got artists like Junji Ito, who is described as being very bubbly and very positive individual. You know very bubbly personality. But then you look at his work and it's yeah, it's just like bro, what, what are you on?
Speaker 2:like, like the first time I picked this up because it caught my eye in a second in charles, I was like what the hell is happening?
Speaker 1:yeah because I didn't know anything about about him previously.
Speaker 2:I just it just caught my eye because of the art style. I was like oh God, what is what's happening? So I had to buy it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I don't blame you one bit, because I actually have a nice collection of Jinji Ito too and I love art books. I like collecting art books and I have his Twisted Vision art book and, yeah, it's, it's very sick and twisted, for sure. But then you read about the guy and it's just like I feel like these two creators should like switch. You know like Miyazaki should be creating the dark and twisted stuff and and Ito should be creating the Ghibli, but I don't know, it's, it's, it's weird.
Speaker 2:It's, it's funny how that can, that can work out and that's not. I don't even think that's necessarily just a like a director or artist thing, like I see you see stand-up comics that are that way, you see actors and actresses that are that way. So it's always an interesting contradiction when it comes to those people. I think what I have discovered, and as we have watched more films because you just mentioned the Boy and the Beast, which is one that is on our list I think I've just discovered that I'm more so of a Satoshi Kon Hosada and even though it's been a little bit of a hit or miss like Makoto Shinkai type of person when it comes to storytelling. But one thing that never fails for Ghibli fans is everyone always has one to recommend to me to try out. So I have a list to choose from, but I'm sick of disappointing people, so we'll see what happens in the next one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, uh, it's tough around here.
Speaker 1:So when watching anime phil, what is it you usually prefer? Are you like classic shonen, like you want action fast?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'm pretty I'm definitely the more casual of the anime fans between eric and I, but, yeah, those type of stories and what I'll do. I'm also a binge anime watcher, so I will not watch anime for three or four months and then for a month it's all I'll watch. So I'll I go through phases. But I also game quite a bit and because that's my, that's my like piece, like when I, wherever I'm off, work and I'm not working on podcast stuff or yeah or uh, or voiceover stuff, that's where I can relax and just focus on a game, whatever it may be, and then I'll throw on a podcast. So I fall behind on quite a bit. Like they're obviously a bunch of shows I also want to watch. You know a bunch of movies. I actually re-watched Breaking Bad during the pandemic, I believe, and yeah, I mean that's a great, a great choice to go through for the first time.
Speaker 2:I remember that whole era of television was pretty crazy. You know, yeah, dexter, when it was still good. There were a couple of other shows. What was, what were? Oh, the walking dead got off to a fast start and then talk about consequences. That show has like too many consequences, like they like overdid it on consequences my brother was really into the walking dead uh series.
Speaker 1:However, I was kind of in this uh, in this period of like hating on anything zombie, vampire, werewolves because at one point I feel like it was just everywhere. Everybody was doing vampire stories, everybody was doing zombies. I actually really enjoyed what was that net I'm not sure if it's netflix, but it was a zombie show that I feel like kind of parodied the walking dead uh uh z nation. I actually really enjoyed z nation because I feel like it was. It was creative, but you know, it was just when everybody else was doing zombie stuff. They did a zombie show that kind of was really goofy and silly but still had a fairly decent story you could follow and stuff.
Speaker 2:My thing with zombies is like it can still be interesting, but after you see something like a train to Busan 28 days later, how can you really improve upon those two things? For zombies it just doesn't seem possible. We're seeing kind of like demons and vampires come back around. Sinners obviously is excellent. I don't know if you've gotten to see that yet. It's on Max.
Speaker 2:I just joined Max the other day. Also, we actually are covering k-pop demon hunters this month for our international feature episode and it is outstanding. So definitely take the time to to check that out so you can familiarize yourself with that tiger. And then also what everyone else is talking about, because it is it's outstanding and everyone's talking about it for for a reason.
Speaker 2:But, um, yeah, yeah, it was actually my girlfriend's daughter that is, uh, counting us to watch it so uh well, we'll have to watch it here pretty soon it's it's, uh, it's so good, but, yeah, there, the good thing is it's like a catch-22, because there's so much to catch up on but there's also too much to catch up on, so you have to like, pick and choose. Like I know, everyone's been talking about the final season of of squid game. Eric, are you gonna watch that? I? I was just okay with where season one ended, so I have no desire to watch.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like the other two it's been hard to pick up season two and now, now I'm behind to season three. It's just one of those things where, like, if you don't pick it up, it just kind of falls to the wayside. Unfortunately. That, that is it. Considering that Squid Game, season one is like a fantastic season of television. So good, thumbs up it's incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, actually, speaking of like missing the boat on certain shows, I remember the hype that surrounded Squid Game season one and I didn't watch it until like almost a year later and when I finally did, I was, I was pretty blown away. But I feel like south korea is gonna be the location of the next hollywood, just because, like, a lot of the stuff they're doing is phenomenal. And, yeah, I'm pretty excited to finally watch season two and season three of Squid Games, but I'm with you, eric, I still haven't watched the second season or third season either it just gets away from you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really does.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so well, obviously, a lot of inspirations and a lot of things that you have as far as just pop culture wise, you know that we could, we could, get into that. We haven't watched, that, we want to watch and all of that. So, eric, what other questions did you have for Victor before we get into our game here this this evening that I have crafted for us to play?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, victor. You know this episode is going to come out at the end of July and you know we're still in the mid-New Year period. What's one goal of yours that you have by the end of the year that you would hope to accomplish? Maybe it's insights. Maybe it's a fever dream. It could be anything really. What is something that you're trying to accomplish? Maybe it's insights. Maybe it's a fever dream. It could be anything really. What is something that you're trying to accomplish with the rest of 2025 ahead of you?
Speaker 1:Well, like I stated, my team just stepped away from the Nom Nomverse project, so A dream goal of mine right now is just to keep that dream alive. I understand that indie TCGs are dime a dozen and stuff, so I'd very much like to keep Nom Nom Verse going, and I am in conversations with a couple publishers that are interested and see the potential of Nom Nom. My main goal, though, is not only to keep Nom Nom Verse going, but to keep the world of Nom Nom and the IP itself going. I'm by no means a game designer I designed a game but I consider myself a world builder, so I'm very excited to pretty much get back to what I'm good at, which is drawing and writing, so very soon.
Speaker 1:I'm actually in the process of fulfilling the rest of Kickstarter. I have a few things left to send out, which, over the last few weeks, that's what I've been working on. So, once I get all the packages sent out and stuff, my plate is looking pretty clean at that point, and I'm excited to just flesh out the world and start working on storyboarding the story. When you have somebody like Bryce Papenbrook attached to the project, you definitely don't want to drop the ball. So I kind of want to, and a lot of the fans of Nom Nom really very much like the lore that we have already given people, so I want to flesh that out. That's kind of my dream. My goal is to really really dig my heels in deep and start fleshing out the world and the lore and the story of the world of Nom Nom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we talked. You know we spoke his praises earlier. But you know because we've gotten to work with Bryce a couple of times as well, through Bold, as well as Ocala Comic Con, as well as Brick City Anime Festival, and one thing I will definitely say about Bryce is anybody that stands in line and waits to talk to him, everybody walks away with a unique experience. He doesn't half-ass anything. He totally understands the importance and the significance of somebody, of like somebody meeting that person that they associate with that character for the first time. We've made sure to talk to him about that and acknowledge that he does a great job. So I remember you talking about how you got to do a panel with him at Spookala and I was like, oh yeah, you know, too bad, bryce is super low-key and quiet so there must not have been much going on. But yeah, he's a lot of fun and, honestly, whenever we have a panel with Bryce, eric, it runs itself.
Speaker 1:So we can just sit there. No, honestly, when I first met Bryce, I was still working with MetaZoo and I was at Indiana PopCon and I took a handful of like MetaZoo packs and stuff and I just walked around and passed out packs to people and it was towards the end of the day where none of the voice actors had lines anymore you know the convention was wrapping up for the day had lines anymore. You know the the convention was wrapping up for the day and I saw an opportunity to go introduce myself to Bryce and it was funny because about a year or two after his event manager his name's Jeremy. You guys may have met him, but Jeremy is a mutual friend of me and Bryce's and I had no idea that I knew Jeremy like worked with voice actors and actors and stuff and managed events for them. But he hits me up. He was in Minnesota, for I can't remember which anime convention it was here in Minnesota. But Jeremy hits me up and he's like, hey, by any chance, do you have a Taylor or Gibson acoustic guitar that I can borrow? And for you know, all you music aficionados, those are expensive guitars. So it's just like, let me check. Really wanted to help Jeremy out and I reached out to a buddy of mine who had a Taylor and I was like dude, can I borrow it? And if anything happens to it I'll replace it. He lets me borrow it. Shout out to TomTom for letting me borrow that guitar.
Speaker 1:But I go to meet up with Jeremy and it was actually St Paddy's Day and he's hanging out in the restaurant that's attached to the, the hotel they were staying at, and I walk in and he just happens to be sitting there with Bryce and I was just like, oh shoot, this is, this is cool, because the first time meeting Bryce, it was great. Like in what you were saying, phil, about, he gives every single person standing in that line the time of day and I think when I first saw him in action I actually took notes from his book, like as an artist, uh, for metazoo and stuff. We had lines of people that wanted us to sign their cards and stuff and I did my best to try to emulate his energy because you know people standing in line for five hours of the convention. You know there's a million things at conventions that people can be enjoying but people choose to stand in line to to meet you and stuff and Bryce does an amazing job of making people make it worth it worth their while to stand in line to meet him. So, anyway, where I'm at this bar and he's with Bryce and I walk up and one of the coolest moments up to that point was like Bryce remembered me from Indiana PopCon. He sees thousands of faces a week, so for him to remember me was just like this is awesome, you know.
Speaker 1:And skip ahead, three hours later Bryce had bought me a beer. It was St Paddy's Day and it's just like this is crazy, aaron Yeager's buying me a beer. Man, like this is nuts. And so three hours later, you know, I had a moment to kind of sit down with Jeremy and Bryce and chat with them and I got to talk to Bryce about Nom, nom and it was awesome because Bryce thought the project was really cool and it's just like, well, I happen to have this character and no lie, when I picture Ralph with a voice, it was always with Bryce's voice and you know I tell him about this character and stuff and he and pretty much he was like, yeah, I'm down to help out with this project any way I can and I would love to do the voice of this character and yeah, um, I forget why I started telling the story, but, yeah, big shout out to Bryce. Bryce is awesome, amazing person and if any of you guys get the opportunity to meet him, he will, you know, make your day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100% so. But yeah, all of that, victor is is so great. We thank you so much for for sharing that.
Speaker 2:And again, we could you know there there are so many different ways we could bring this conversation um, but, uh, you know, in the interest of time, what we'll do is we'll I apologize oh, no, no, no, you're totally fine, but, eric, if there's uh, not anything else, I think we are ready for the game, which, again, I think will be super, uh educational for all of us, because I certainly learned a lot putting this together.
Speaker 3:Okay, I'm looking forward to it. You're doing it.
Speaker 2:You're hosting this I got it.
Speaker 2:I got it. So, for those of you that are listening, I will do my best to describe what is happening on the screen, but you may want to head on over to our YouTube page so you can see the examples that I will be sharing here today. So this is a very simple game, Victor and Eric, of what costs more, and pretty much there will be. Oh, actually, I don't know why I'm struggling here. I have rules on the next page. So what costs more is the name of the game. So here are the rules. So there'll be seven rounds, no ties, just bragging rights. Every slide will give you a TCG card and a random item. All you have to do decide which one costs more, Get it right, earn a point. Most points at the end wins. So are you guys ready to play what costs more? Any?
Speaker 3:questions.
Speaker 2:Done game. Let's do it Again. This is going to be eye is going to be eye opening for everybody involved. So round one what costs more? This 1993, magic, the Gathering, mtg, alpha, siobhan Dragon or a 2025 Toyota I misspelled Toyota or a 2025 Toyota RAV4. Victor, you are our guest. I'll let you guess first which one costs more.
Speaker 1:All right, so it's a 9.5. Beckett, that would mean it is the. Alpha set it is the alpha set. I'm not even sure how much Toyota RAVs, but Toyotas do go for quite a bit. However, I'm it's crazy how much cards can go for. They can go for literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. I would say a toyota rav goes for anywhere in between 30 to 60 000. I'm gonna go ahead and put my money on the magic the gathering card.
Speaker 2:Okay, eric what do you think?
Speaker 3:You know what? 2025 cars, though, are expensive. I mean, it's a brand new car. I'm going to go with the RAV for old times, Phil Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, honestly, people will ask like what's your dream car? I just want another RAV.
Speaker 2:The RAV was my first car and I would love to have that they're fantastic Caused a lot of trouble in high school in that car. The answer is the Magic Gathering card, sold for $44,400 at Fanatics Collect. The starting MSRP for a Toyota RAV4 is $25,850. So there you go, all right. Point goes to Victor Round two. Which costs more? This 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson rookie card or this 2012 Marquis 500 Sport speedboat? Which one of these costs more? Victor, you got the last one right, so you'll get to go first. We have a 1984 Jackie Robinson rookie card or a mini yacht. For those of you that are just listening, which one of these cost?
Speaker 1:more. Uh, I gotta put my money on the jackie robinson rookie card.
Speaker 3:Okay eric yeah, I'm also gonna go the jackie robinson card here all right, both you go with jackie robinson the.
Speaker 2:The Jackie Robinson card sold for $336,000 at Heritage Auctions in 2018. This boat is listed for $299,000 on SI Yachts, which is a website I never thought I'd visit in my lifetime. So if you want to know, if you're in the market for a boat, you can get it for less than this Jackie Robinson PSA 9 card. So there you go, which is just crazy. These numbers are going to get wilder, guys. I'm just going to tell you right now. Eric is on the board, victor takes another one. So two to one. Let's go to round three. We have a Beckett 10 Elsa Spirit of Winter Enchanted Lorkana card, or One Night at the Ty Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons. There's another Four Seasons in New York City which costs more. Eric, I'll let you go first, since you got one right here the last time. So we have a Elsa Spirit of Winter Enchanted Lorcanicard or One Night at the Ty Warner Penthouse at the four seasons in New York city.
Speaker 3:And that spelling is atrocious you gotta you're supposed to act like a real professional.
Speaker 2:Four seasons.
Speaker 3:In New.
Speaker 2:York, oh God, okay, listen, a lot happened here. I was off. I was also working my day job, so I was working. No, no, they're not going to listen. So, I was working. No, no, it's fine.
Speaker 3:I think there's too many typos in there, so it's gotta be a trick. So I'm going to go one night in the Ty Warner penthouse, I think. I think it's that one.
Speaker 2:Victor, what do you think?
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh. I know there's some more Connor cards that can go for quite a bit of money, but it is still a relatively new card game. And that is the four seasons in new york city and it's the new york. I got it. I'm also going for the one night in the penthouse, okay all right.
Speaker 2:The elsa and lorcona card sold for 45 000 on ebay in 2023. The ty warner penthouse starts at sixty thousand dollars a night. So it is the. And look at, this isn't even a good view. I tried to. This is the best picture I could find of this penthouse, and this was the best one. I was like this is it. I'm like that just doesn't seem like it's worth it. So, all right, both of you get a point there. So, uh, three for three.
Speaker 1:I'm not the biggest Frozen fan, so I don't think either are really worth it.
Speaker 2:You and Eric are kindred spirits. In that one, I will say. The value of this card has gone significantly down. So this, I think, is now worth about $8,000. But at the time it sold for $45,000 on eBay. So, Eric, maybe when we go to New York Comic Con one day we can stay at the Ty Warner penthouse.
Speaker 2:Maybe, All right. So two out of three for Eric, three for three for Victor. Let's go to round four, All right? This Michael Jordan 1986, 1987 Fleer rookie card or ringside tickets to Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor in 2017. Victor, I'll let you go first. We have a PSA 10 rookie Michael Jordan card or ringside tickets to Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor in 2017. Which of these do you think cost more?
Speaker 1:I do remember seeing articles about that fight and how expensive they were um ringside tickets?
Speaker 2:I don't think yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1:I I gotta go with the michael jordan rookie card. However, I do think this is where I take my first, because I I think I remember seeing something for like a million to $5 million for the ringside tickets for that fight or something like that, but this is. Michael Jordan we're talking about, so.
Speaker 2:Eric, what do you think?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I want to lean towards Michael Jordan, but I but also I did hear the same story about Mayweather McGregor, so I'm going to go ringside tickets here.
Speaker 2:Alright, here we go. The Michael Jordan card sold for $150,000 through Robert Edwards Auctions. Third party websites were selling tickets for this fight starting at $157,700. So there you go. It was close. It was close. I think I'd rather have the rookie card, based on how that fight went, but it's, that's how.
Speaker 1:I actually called that fight to a T. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was. No, that was the time. But it was a lot more entertaining than it had any right to be for sure, yeah, yeah, especially based on Mayweather's fighting style. Like I did not expect him to be that aggressive, so well, boxing fighters have to go a lot longer.
Speaker 1:Well, not a lot longer, but an mma fighter when you're fighting, minutes feel like hours right. And I, I knew connor was just gonna drain himself so there you go.
Speaker 2:We are all tied up at three apiece heading into round five. We got a competitive matchup going here. Let's go to round five. We have this 1998 pokemon japanese promo. Okay, why didn't the picture load in? Hopefully it will load in the next, uh, the next slide. 1998 pokemon japanese great promo. Illustrator hollow coro coro comics card or a five bed, five bedroom, six bath, 5 421 foot square foot home in los angeles, california. I'll bring up the house here to share in a moment. Eric, I'll let you go first.
Speaker 3:You got the last one right yeah, I can see it through canvas. That that works out. Uh, I got a visual, okay, so while you're getting the visual, up.
Speaker 2:I'll show it that way. Victor can see it too.
Speaker 3:I'll bring it up here in a second, this one is tough because I definitely think that that Pokemon card is probably it. I mean a house in Los Angeles and, you know, still standing post-fire too, Probably very expensive. I'm going to go. I'm going to go Pokemon card here.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm going to pull up this picture so you can see it here. Victor, give me just a second. I just have to make sure I pull up the picture so it doesn't spoil how much this house costs. Hold on, okay, I think I got it. Give me a second here.
Speaker 1:I don't even think I need to see the picture, no, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm going to. Yeah, that's really nice.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go with the home Going to really nice. I'm gonna go with the home, gonna go with the house. Okay, yeah, give me a second here. Let me pre-share this lots of moving parts. We're live, it's. It's how it goes, all right, okay, the pokemon card sold for five million two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in a private sale in 2021 to a piece of shit youtuber we won't mention here, and the home is listed for four million one hundred and ninety five thousand dollars on zillow. So there you go, pokemon card. This is the highest sale as well for, uh, for a pokemon card, um, or a mansion, essentially in los angeles. So you choose. But eric takes the lead four to three, heading into the next round. I think I also didn't mess. This thing is a mess. It's fine. I think I got my rounds messed up as well. I was under a lot of pressure. It's okay.
Speaker 3:Next, next one, never letting you do a game again.
Speaker 2:No, it's fine, all right. And the next one. We have a 2020, uh optic downtown gold vinyl Joe burrow card, a 7.5 beckett, or a trip to the titanic on ocean gate, which one of these cost more. Victor, I'll let you go first this uh 7.5 joe burrow card. 2020 joe burrow, don russ optic. Or a trip to the titanic with Gate, which one cost more.
Speaker 1:I'll go with the Ocean Gate trip to the Titanic.
Speaker 2:All right, Eric, what do you think?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have a feeling like a bunch of millionaires went on that but also like Millionaires are.
Speaker 1:Didn't they not come back? They did not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, millionaires are also buying cards, so One-way trip you know what.
Speaker 3:Let's? Let's keep it. Uh, let's keep it. Mixed up here. I'm gonna take a chance on the joe burrow. It's the gold vinyl that's sticking out to me. I feel like there's something special there. I know absolutely nothing. Adding the tiger in.
Speaker 2:Adding the bengal tiger in is a very interesting touch yeah interesting card, yeah, for sure. So uh next. And so the the Joe Burrow card sold for one hundred eighty hundred eight thousand dollars via Golden Auctions in 2022. Ocean Gate was charging two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a person per person per person.
Speaker 1:When it all couldn't get a group rate and done Nope. It's all good.
Speaker 2:I've seen the movie I was going to. Yeah, there are a lot of Ocean Gate documentaries coming out right now, so they're very, very interesting. So, all right, we are all tied at four apiece, heading into, I believe, the final one. These rounds are off, so I think this is the last one. All right, one more round. Here we have the 2023 Magic the Gathering, the one ring tales of middle earth card, one of one psa nine. Or brawny james 2025, 2026, los angeles lakers salary. Which one of these things costs more? I think there is actually two more or one more after this, so which one costs more? Uh, victor, I'll let you go first. 2023 magic gathering, one of one.
Speaker 2:The one ring tales of middle earth card psa 9 better be that, or bronnie james, better be 26 salary with the los angeles lakers. Are you going with?
Speaker 1:the magic. Yeah, I, I believe. Post malone Malone bought that card for $2 million or shy of $2 million, and this is Bronny James.
Speaker 2:Second round pick. You know, yeah, yeah, nba salaries are high though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they are, and this is his upcoming salary and I don't think he did anything in the previous season to warrant a high salary. But it is Bronny James so it's all scaled.
Speaker 2:So so it's all preset.
Speaker 1:I gotta go with the Magic card.
Speaker 2:Okay, eric, what do you think?
Speaker 3:Honestly, I'm okay going Bronny salary here Again. I think it's gonna be closer than we think.
Speaker 2:It's a little nepotism as well.
Speaker 3:No, you know, LeBron got a couple bonuses in there.
Speaker 2:Alright, the Magic of the the gathering card did sell to post malone for two million dollars in 2023 and bronnie james will make 1 million 955 377 dollars on his second year of his rookie contract. So it is close.
Speaker 1:But the post malone, uh, the magic the gathering card I wish I could make that much money sitting on a bench yeah, yeah right.
Speaker 2:Or playing in the G League and just having some fun, so, and then getting to live at the James Mansion, so it would be pretty nice, so all right. So I think we should have one more here. Perfect, all right. Round seven this is the final round. We have a 2002 Yu-Gi-Oh Blue Eyes, white Dragon first edition, psa 10, so mint. Or Seven Nights at the Via Odaia in Cannes, france I assume it's pronounced Cannes because there's the Cannes Film Festival. So which one of these costs more, eric? I'll let you go first. We have a 2002 Blue Eyes, white Dragon first edition card. Or Seven Nights at this very nice Airbnb in France. Which one do you think costs more?
Speaker 3:Listen, the one thing I know about going anywhere overseas is that it's cheap as hell compared to where we live. So I'm going to go blue eyes, white dragon here comfortably.
Speaker 2:Okay, victor, what do you think?
Speaker 1:Very good point, eric. Okay, victor, what do you think? Very good point, eric. However, I do know, out of all the tcgs, yugioh usually doesn't hit as high as numbers, as magic and pokemon do, and I felt pretty comfortable choosing the seven knights at this place until you said that, eric, and then I was just like oh but, we are talking about it is a week. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know so.
Speaker 1:I'm up by two. Right One. I'm up by one. Do we have a sudden death?
Speaker 2:No, this is all the marbles, so wait, we could tie and it's just a tie, so we could tie. I was wrong in the rules, okay.
Speaker 1:I'll just go with the Seven Knights, okay.
Speaker 2:All right, here we go. The Blue Eyes White Dragon sold for $43,200 at Heritage Auctions in 2022. And it's roughly $70, grand for seven nights at this Airbnb. So when I found this Airbnb bare minimum. You have to rent it for at least a week, so that's why I got seven nights there you go, in the south of France. So there you go. Or you can have this Blue Eyes White Dragon card that sold back in 2022. So there you go. Victor is victorious.
Speaker 3:Thank, you guys both for playing.
Speaker 2:Thank you guys, both for playing. Other than the typos, that went pretty well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and the missing picture and the broken rules, it's just crazy.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, the picture is not my fault. The picture is not my fault, that's a Canva. It's a Canva problem because it's in the upload, so that's not my fault. But, yeah, just crazy how much some of these cards go for and what you could buy instead. So I thought that was a fun game. But, victor, thanks so much for playing and congratulations on your victory, and we thank you for joining us here and what has been a really, really fun conversation. You did allude to it. As far as wanting to come back for a series on another episode, we would love to have you if you enjoyed your time here. So we appreciate you here this evening. So please, before you go, let everybody know again where they can find all your work, how they can support Nom, Nom, where you're going to be and anything else you want to let our audience know before we wrap up for the evening.
Speaker 1:Well, first off, uh, thanks for having me, guys. This was uh very fun. This is my very first uh podcast, so, um, thank you for inviting me and if you guys are any of you guys are trading card game fans, please, uh, check out nomnomverse. Or, if you are interested in just uh supporting any level of support would be nice. But you can follow our instagram or social medias. Uh, you can find us at world of nomnom. Our website is worldofnomnomcom.
Speaker 1:If you are interested in purchasing some boxes of the game, currently, right now, the website is being worked on. The marketplace is down right now, so unfortunately you can't buy any of this. However, there are people selling boxes and cards on eBay, so feel free to support some of our online sellers. Yeah, join our Discord, which, if you look us up on Instagram, there is a link that takes you to the website, to our discord, all our other social medias, and I'll hook these guys up with a link as well to everything so you guys can post it on your YouTube channel or however you guys go about it. And also, eric Phil, unfortunately I couldn't get boxes to you guys for the stream, but I will be sending you guys some boxes to open, so hopefully you guys enjoy and get lucky on some rips as well. But other than that, thanks for tuning in and please at least follow us on Instagram.
Speaker 2:And you'll also be at Ocala Comic Con in the fall as well, right, which is coming up in October. So if you want to come see Victor and Nom Nom in person, I can tell you whenever you walk by the table, the booth, it was always quite a few people there, so definitely looking forward to seeing you. So all all that will be in the show notes of this episode so you can find everything nom nom and victor related over there, which is also where you can find everything wait for a podcast related on our link tree. So make sure you follow us over on social media, the most important ones being instagram, tiktok, our discord community, and we are also streaming on twitch quite a bit. You can also support the show a couple of different ways. You can head head on over to Apple Podcasts, spotify, YouTube, thumbs up, subscribe, five stars, all of that stuff. It goes a very, very long way and we thank all of you that have done that so far. We are very, very appreciative.
Speaker 3:But if you find yourself maybe wanting to support the show and get a little extra, as well as getting episodes early and some additional perks, eric will let you know how to do that before wrapping us up yeah, so of course, uh, all the free stuff very much appreciated, but if you want to go the extra mile to support the podcast and go beyond, join our patreon, where patrons of the show are supporting us monthly and, in exchange, getting behind the scenes and early access to episodes like this one, so shout out to all of our patrons. Briar t3, kato, vintage macaroni cory from the world is my burrito. And nick casparo, the author of the vidalarium series. We very much appreciate it and we appreciate you for listening to this episode of the wait for a podcast. Please remember that we release new episodes every wednesday. My name is Mr Eric Almighty, that is Philip Filipino and Victor Larson, and we'll see you next time. All you got to do is wait.
Speaker 2:This is the Wait For it Podcast.
