Sleezy Vibes With Danielle Perkins

0:02 Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to Vibin' with Sleazy the podcast. This is season seven, episode seven. I want to thank everybody for listening, tuning in, and downloading. It's been a fun season so far. I've had some cool guests and done some cool solo episodes. So by the time this episode comes out, you'll be in the heart of March Madness. I did a March Madness episode, so hopefully everybody's brackets are looking good in the college basketball picture. Um, today I have a special guest for this episode. Uh, she has been on the show before. Uh, her name is Danielle Perkins. How are you doing? What's up? So uh Danielle and I go way back. I've had her on the show before. Uh, thought this episode I was gonna try something different, get a little creative, and kind of go the nostalgia route.

0:49 Um, Danielle used to uh, you know, me and Danielle have actually talked about this in the past, how we've talked about past things and things that aren't around anymore. We actually got a bite to eat today and actually talked about things that aren't around. Um so the thing that I wanted to uh really discuss was that Danielle used to work at a video store. And for some people listening, they might not even know what renting a video uh in in real life is is like. So I thought we kind of break down, it's not gonna be the whole episode, but I thought we discussed kind of how uh working at a video store was and what the process was, and then just some memories that we both have from those kind of stores.

1:34 So uh, Danielle, so back in the day, how long did you work at a video rental store? For about two years, I worked part-time uh on top of a regular, you know, nine to five job. So work like the night shift, the weekend shifts, stuff like that, close the store. What did the night shift consist of? How late would you be there at the video store? Well, I think we closed around like midnight, and then sometimes I'd have to do inventory, so I was there till like probably one in the morning. So then I would have to go home and then try to go to bed and then get up for like my regular job. So did that for just a little while. So what was the process of the store? So, like, yeah, everyone gets it.

2:15 You rent a video and you bring it back and it's due time, but um, what did you feel like you a lot of your days were like or nights? Well, especially on the weekends, I would have people that would come in and they would like, you know, they would ask for recommendations. And one of the cool perks of the job was when new videos would come in, if we would get all the inventory, you know, scanned and put together and and everything processed in enough time, we could take home the new ones before people can rent it, us watch it, and then we can give recommendations to like the customers. So that's cool. Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, so and of course, I was the only one in the store that was like a horror buff.

3:00 So, you know, my manager, this is so funny. My manager was in the um one in one time when we were working, we were real busy on the weekend and stuff, and and some people were asking for some horror recommendations. And do you remember the movie Human Centipede? Yeah, oh yeah, it's a fucked up. Yeah, it's very fucked up. Okay, like I mean, that's some wild shit, right? Well, I started recommending that movie. He was getting so mad, he's like, you can't recommend that. I'm like, no, it's good horror. You can't, he was getting so mad, but I'm like, hey, you gotta watch it. You can't recommend, you know, anything like that. I was the only person in the store that liked horror movies. And y'all had a copy of Human Centipede, I'm guessing.

3:41 Yeah. Yeah. Which which that's what that's what was interesting about your video store. You worked at it was called Family Video, correct? Yeah. And so what's funny about your store was like I remember when I go in there, it was always like very well organized and clean. It had your course your videos, and then you know, back in the day you used to be able to rent video games. Um, and you also had like a porn section in the back, right? Yeah, so yeah. So like how so how big was the porn room? Story. So obviously, there's no family videos around, so I'm like not slashing their name or any means, you know, working there, but we did have a back room.

4:22 We had to check those in as well. But the funny thing, okay, so you go to the very back and there's the bathrooms, and you pass the bathrooms and you go to this back room, but there's like saloon doors that like creak that you can hear all the way at the front working. So we always hear when people come in and out of there, yeah, and like this creak, you know, you know, somebody's going back in the porn. So it's either the regulars quotes, or it's sometimes it's kind of cute when it's like a young couple and you're like, oh, okay, yeah, I see what's happening. You know, whatever to each of them. But yeah, we we had the back room too. Yeah, I thought that was always interesting when I'd go in there, and I was gonna ask you, like, so with all the different titles that your host store had in it, how many DVDs do you think was in that building?

5:14 Oh man, I have no idea. I mean, we Would you think 10,000? Over and under maybe. I mean, we always had all the new stuff in, and the cool part about it is what what I loved. Like, you know, especially when you're a kid and you I mean, around our age where it's like that was something fun to do. Yeah. Because that's what you got. You got DVDs, you know, you didn't really rent anything on a TV or anything like that. So it was that was the fun part on a Friday or Saturday, and then like you order pizza and you do your thing, and you hang out with your friends, or do you know, that was the cool thing, right? But there's certain days where you would purchase I'm sorry, rent like a new video, and you can get like a older one for like five days, like something like 10, 15, 20 years old that you haven't watched in forever for free.

6:03 That's a good deal. Yeah, at that point. So and then you all had the uh rewind machines, right? Like, would you like if somebody didn't rewind a tape, you know, they had to rewind that, correct? Or was it a DVD at that point? No, it was DVD. It wasn't that far back. Well, did you have to rewind or you didn't have to rewind on DVD? So that but did you have to like clean them and do those things? Like, did they have a yeah? They're well, we didn't like check every single one, but I mean we did have machines where like the older movies, like if it skipped or something, we had a process where we would put it through the machine and everything, and like it would clean, we've got um like uh games too for like and you can rent an you know an Xbox or whatever, but you can rent games too, and that was a big pull, especially for kids, because there wasn't a lot of places where you can rent them, you could buy them, but not to rent them, and that was a big deal.

6:52 Yeah, y'all had some good titles. I remember renting some games. That's mainly why I used your store because when I came back from college, I only believed it was only around for a few years left, but I uh I remember it always being there, and it was always uh there in the heart of J Town. I remember growing up, I used to go to the video store all the time. What was really cool, that's how I got into James Bond. I remember going to Blockbuster Fern Creek on Bardstown Road, and I would just literally rent every James Bond in order. And then I got to a point where I'd be renting multiple and multiple, but um I just remember going to that store. I remember Hollywood Video, and they had great games, and I remember you could play games in the store, and Hollywood Video actually was in the dentist's office that's in front of the fitness center there on Hurstbourne and Taylorsville, and then I uh my favorite was though uh Red Giraffe.

7:45 So if anybody remembers Red Giraffe, it was a really cool video store. Uh talking about horror, that's actually where I saw Hellraiser for the first time. I actually saw that character on the cover because when you're in a video store, you get to see the cover, the back cover, because most of the time you got to get the shit up front and you'd be looking. So I remember at Red Giraffe, what I liked. Um, they had uh so many different games. And at the time I went to Red Giraffe was when I was really young, they had Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo. So that when you looking back now, I can literally picture it all in my head. But talking about nostalgia, it's like you're going way back uh with that.

8:26 And I remember talking about Sega. I had a Sega as a kid, I was always a Sega kid, like Nintendo, but and I've had a Super Nintendo before, but with Sega, I used to just love playing it. And uh Comcast or Spectrum, whatever you want to call it, at the time they were owned by Insight BB, if you remember that being a little resident. And Insight BB had the Sega Channel, and the Sega Channel was literally a cartridge that would go in to your Sega Genesis, and it had cords that ran into the wall, but it had like antenna or like a signal, and you could get the top 100 Sega games at that time, and they had multiple categories, and so I had the Sega channel for a long time, and I think it was the best investment because you could try games, you might not want to play them.

9:18 You might play a game where you're like, damn, I really want to own that because it's like Sega Channel might be rotating games, so like there would be a rotation, you get new, and then you could also like play classics. So Sega Channel was dope, a big part of my childhood. I remember that, but yeah, video stores definitely saved me when I like wanted to play a game or catch a movie. But you're right, it was definitely the weekend place to go. I mean, it was always fun to go with your significant other to go grab something or to go with a group of friends to grab it. I think to be honest, the last time though I had the last movie that I rented for like an actual, I think actual like BHS video was Anaconda uh with Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube and uh Angelina Jolie's dad and all that.

10:08 I used to love that movie. And I remember I had a birthday party one year and had friends over, and I think that's the movie I picked was like Anaconda, because it was just really cool at that time. But yeah, those being able to grab a VHS was wild, but I just remember those VHS machines, you could put it in and rewind the tape, and it wasn't. Yeah, I'm sure those too. The one I worked at though, that was definitely past the VHS time. But the the cool thing is we had a kid section, obviously, you like cartoon, you know, stuff like that. Usually those were free if you rent like something uh like you know, for us or whatever, you get a free client. Who made the call on what aired during the store? Like what because you always had a video plant.

10:50 That's right. Um, it was between us, yeah. Yeah, we would we would choose, but we had to obviously make sure it wasn't anything like two, like the human centipede on the yeah, that would be a no-go. Yeah, that would that would not have gone well. I don't know if y'all would have been open the next day. But that might be a little over the edge. Because once if you've seen it, yeah, it's it's fucked up. Yeah, there's some there's some stitching going on. Oh god. Oh god, yeah, it's but uh but the cool thing that I loved is because I was a collector of movies at the time, I still love movies, but now I feel like I'm more I don't want to collect it, like everything's digital now, right?

11:33 But there was something nice and tangible. They used to do once they go through so many months of like new movies, they had to get rid of them, right? So they did massive movie sales, like like five dollars, seven fifty, or like you know, ten, twelve dollars, or even selling games, and like you could stock up on like barely used you know, movies. That was always a cool feature. They would clean them and like you know, make sure, you know. I mean, there's the label would say you could rent this for five days or buy for$19.99 or$10.99. But I mean, if you look at them, you could look at the back of them and make sure they're cool, and then plus, like I said, they had the machines up there, and there I want to say there was like a week guarantee or something, just like make sure it runs, right?

12:15 I mean there's always a gamble, but I mean they're they were cheap prices. And what you noticed is that so the tr the the big transition was when video stores went out of business, which you know, again, there might be your random ones across the country that just stay open for that nostalgia feel. And yeah, you know, one of my favorite movies all the time was Be Kind Rewind with uh Jack Black and Most Deaf, and that was a great movie, just fighting for a video store, fighting to keep it survive. But playing into the tapes, yeah, yeah. Planning the tapes, they still have VHS tapes, yeah. They still have VHS, they still do like a rental, I think, process. I thought they were gonna close, but I think they're still open. Well, their live music does really well.

12:57 Yeah, I think I think a lot of people support on that. Yeah, something there, but Wild and Woolly video was huge here in Little. That was a big local spot on Bargetown Road. You could that's where I actually rented uh Clockwork Orange for the first time, like the most controversial movie I've seen. It's like it was cool because I remember me and some friends before Wild and Woolly closed. I remember we were talking about that movie, and we're like, that would be a place that would have it. I remember they had a copy, but um, I still have somewhere in storage in one of my containers, collector containers, I still have my Wild and Woolly card. I remember it was laminated white little card with the woolly mammoth guy on it. Yeah, for sure.

13:38 I still had my red giraffe card. I was like, I would frame that seriously. And the reason I found my red the reason I brought up Red Giraffe um before I talk about like the transition period was that I had a Bret Hall Sega Genesis hockey game, and when I was selling uh stuff that I had like a few years back, I was flipping some things and got rid of my Sega because I was just over it. And um it had a bread it had a red giraffe sticker on the Bret Hall video game, and so I thought that was so cool because the stickers stayed perfect and it was even on the cover too, and so I was like, that was so cool. And I remember the stickers they gave out, and at that time, what I used to do, I was super obsessed with NHL and hockey as a kid, so I would go to Wendy's there in Fern Creek.

14:29 All we they had were sponsored by NHL, so they had like NHL Happy Meal for one year, and I remember I got all the toys, they gave you stickers of like all the teams, and so on, I believe what I did, like you were talking about, I bought that Brad Hall hockey game from Red Giraffe, and I had put some of my hockey stickers on the case. So when I ended up selling it to this guy, uh he asked me about it, and I told him, and so we kind of talked about, you know, we actually that was probably the last time I've actually talked about Red Giraffe. But but the big transition now, if you notice, it's like these game exchanges, these half-price books, majority of those stores, if you look at their actual entertainment stock, which is like movies and video games, a lot of this shit is from video stores because they closed down and that product had to go somewhere, yeah, and a lot of people take it in.

15:18 So it's like over the years, I have literally bought stuff, grabbed stuff where you'll occasionally find a blockbuster sticker or some random like that. I really still have boxes at my house that are just sitting there in storage that are still DVDs. I've taken some in to those places, the half-priced books and stuff, but they I mean, I gave them tons and they really don't give you much. And it's not their fault, it's just they don't go for it. Well, they have mass inventory now. Talking about half-price books, if you're in the little area, a little tip don't go to the hearse form one. Uh the hearse form one actually just goes to their direct warehouse. Uh, the one that actually goes to the store is the Westport Road one, so they actually pay you more money there.

15:59 And um, yeah, and the other thing about half price, yeah, they're looking for rare finds, different things. Now, I will say this: I've dug through half-price books. I literally like some Detroit Lions football player had a biography, and he I didn't even know the player. And I'm looking through, and half price sometimes will do this. They'll put a sticker that says, or it's like a sticker from the bookstore originally sold from where it says signed. So you know it's an autograph copy. And so I've noticed that on certain things they'll pay. But I will give half price credits. It's probably the only place that you can sell uh you know anything you kind of want.

16:41 It's almost like a pawn shop because they'll buy toys, they'll buy loose stuff, they'll buy maps, and you know, different things like that. And that's something recently that I kind of got into. Um, I'm always excuse me, flipping things, and on eBay, I listed a bunch of maps. I wrote all these state tourism sites and they sent me all these free maps, and I was like, I wonder if I can do anything with this. And I think I was telling you this other day, I flipped a map to some guy in South Dakota for 12 bucks and flipped an Arizona map the other day. So definitely more money than what Hap Price would have paid me. But it's interesting the stuff like just Hat Price in general, those stores or any of that.

17:23 It's just interesting what is still wanted. Like when you go into a game exchange, you can still buy GameCube games, you can still buy a PS1. I mean, I'm doing I'm working security next week at the Lil Barcade Expo, and it's like the reason that's such a hit is because people are coming to play classic games. Shit, they don't have, should they have played since they're a kid. You see so many adults out there acting like they're a kid again because they're getting that feel of like, oh, I'm getting to cue up this system that I haven't played in 20 years. So it's really cool to see. The nostalgia that we hold on to. Like we don't get it during the time years pass, and then we come circle where you know everything in in the world's kind of you know shitty right now.

18:06 And so we kind of circle back at the things that we kind of like need the happiness with at some point, you know. Oh, we do. I mean, people people's businesses are a lot of them that are smaller shops or local or some random idea. It's it is a lot of times all that nostalgia feel. Like, yeah, like there's a guy uh in Murfresboro, Tennessee, he's got a sports card shop called Grand Slam Collectibles. He just he had a store for years and then he sold two cards and made all this money, and now he's got this huge thing, a huge store. But it's like he has his dad come in, he has uh friends come in, he does these special events to give back to the community, and it's all because number one, he can do it, but number two, it's because he's still banking on what he remembers as a child.

18:52 And when you hear the interviews, you he talks about what he still looks for and what he still collects. And he's one of those sports card stores where a lot of people look at it and go, Oh, that's junk. But a lot of people nowadays are collecting these packs, like packs that were out 20 years ago or were five times the value, it's because they sat on them and they never opened them. And so this dude, he keeps stuff from like the 70s, 80s, 90s, and so I think what it does, it brings a lot of people in, especially middle-aged adults that are like, I haven't ripped a pack of baseball in forever. And then they see and they're like, Holy shit, that's the pack I saw when I was a kid.

19:33 Oh, yeah. So you did work at McDonald's, uh, which was uh really uh not too you know 10-minute drive from the the video store, but when you worked at McDonald's, uh you were there your first job, you were there during the Beanie Baby craze. So my gosh, it was nuts. So with that going on, the there was people you said that would just dump the food and just buy the beanie baby. Which is, I mean, I mean, me personally, I don't eat McDonald's. Like, I might every once in a while go for a breakfast sandwich there, which is not any better. But I really try to stay away from that stuff, um, for the most part.

20:13 But yeah, I mean, people would come through because I don't know, I can't remember if it was cheaper to buy out, or they just thought it was easier to buy a happy meal and it just comes in the happy meal. Like, but it was like they would buy ten at a time and just throw the food out and just keep the because the baby beanie babies weren't sold a la carte, were they? You had they were. Oh, they were people would just buy it that way, and I don't know if they just didn't realize you could buy it separate, or now did you all know which beanie baby you had when they came in? Or was I trying to remember it like or Yeah, and it was weird because I it was so long ago. Oh my god, it was so long ago. But trying to think back, I want to say that you had to release them in a certain order, and so it's not like you could just come in.

20:55 Do you have this one? Do you have this one? No, we couldn't do it that way. And people would line out out the door. Oh, yeah. I remember one time when they switched one, people were cheering. It was ridiculous. It was shit you would see in like a movie. Oh, like in a stupid, stupid movie. And I'm not gonna lie. I mean, I I was into it. Like, I remember collecting, I remember my mom and I would go get them, and yeah. I was into it too. I mean, obviously, you know, working that we got the first selection. And it got competitive, it got very competitive. People, people would talk, and what what's interesting McDonald's did, which I thought was a super cool move, however, it's very, very sad now how much the values decrease. So, you know, a big thing in the 90s, which it again, I love all the stuff.

21:40 I we had the best years in the night, best childhood. I I I will say that over anybody's, but I will say this though there was a tons of mass production. And what I mean by that is tons of beanie babies, tons of sports cars, tons of toys. So nowadays the shit has value because it's hard to find. It's got age, but a lot of that stuff is still around because there was so many. And like me, who actually took care of this stuff, a lot of my stuff is in perfect condition from 30 years later because I took care of it. Some people didn't. So there's people that still spend money and replace. I'm not saying stuff from the 90s don't have value because it does. I flip stuff. But the thing about the beanie babies, what is sad, they did the international beanie babies and they did them in a special packaging where it had a flat back, had like a Canada Beanie Baby America one, an Irish one.

22:32 I remember all that. So I had those. And the problem with those was the plastic that McDonald's used being number one by food, being in people's storage, people smoke cigarettes in their house, especially back in the day when cigarettes smoke, it gets yellow, it gets funky. That has no value. And that actually damages the beanie baby. But then the And they don't want you to open it. And they don't want you to open it. So if you have that thing, it's no value. So nowadays, you're only getting about$5 per beanie baby in that package. And I've seen them at Goodwill, I've seen them places. So what's funny, I'm watching Pawn Stars the other day, and of course, yeah, the show's scripted, blah, blah, blah. But they still buy a flip, they still are knowledgeable, and they bring a toy expert in.

23:16 And this guy thought, and again, this is a very dated episode. So this this pawn stars episode is kind of before eBay was just super extreme. So this is like probably my college day. So like 2009-2010. This guy brings in the four the set of the international beanie babies he got, these little mini set from McDonald's. They talk about it, they do a whole little uh segment on it, and then they bring the toy expert in. And then when the toy expert comes in, the situation with the toy expert is he basically tells the guy it was mass-produced, the pot, like it's not has no value. Like I I think, and again, don't quote me, I don't know exactly what Rick quoted him, but it might have been the guy could have got 20 bucks, uh, and you know, and maybe Rick sells them for double that.

24:01 But I just it's just crazy how that stuff took the decline. Yeah, it's the consumer mindset though, right? It's like we want what we can't have, so if there's less, then that's what we want, right? It's an adrenaline, though. It's an adrenaline rush, like exactly because like with sports cards, I have a big collection of sports cars. However, I don't have tons, I just have one crate, they're very organized. Me, I do buy like one pack a month just just to have that rush, that feel, and that's the reason why. When like I don't collect certain things, but I collect other things. But the thing about it is I haven't really bought anything materialistic in a long time.

24:43 And I remember WWE, which I love wrestling, they put out a Muhammad Ali toy. I believe it was a year ago or two years ago, and it was a Target exclusive. That's cool. So I'm bored at my old job, had tons of time to kill when I'd be working on projects. I be in the area, I'd stop at Target for five minutes. So I walk through the Target toy store and I look, and it was almost like fate. Here is here is the toy section, and they're all empty, and there's just Muhammad Ali hanging there, just one. And I literally am like, yep, I gotta buy it. So I bought it for uh 20 bucks and might have been like 18 bucks or something. I don't know. Bought the thing, brought it home, kept it for a couple years, and then here recently I just flipped that thing for 50 plus dollars.

25:29 So it just number one, some things do go up in value, but number two, I'm gonna be honest with you, when I found that Ali, it wasn't that like I gotta have it, or I needed it, or even truly wanted it. It just was like I found it. It was that rush of getting it. It was so cool. Absolutely. Well, it's meaningful. I mean, I've done that before, too. Like, you know, those meaningful, like I went, I wanted to get one of the old school Nintendo's, like the real deal Nintendo's, but they were hard to find, there was no guarantee, and they were expensive, they still are. But they did that little remake or whatever. Um, it's like halfway. It's one of those, yeah. It's one of these systems where it's basically not just, but they they build it in.

26:10 But it's kind of cool to still, I mean, it's not the same, but it is kind of the same. It's the same game. And that got really good. Yeah, malls did that a lot. There's like little those little kiosk malls, they'll have those people that'll sell those video game systems. And what it is, again, that's why these stores are still popular. Like game exchange, is people are wanting to play the old stuff. Like the room that's most packed at Game Expo or the little arcade expo all the time, and the thing that I see majority of people play is duck hunt. People are still obsessed with playing duck hunt. I used to love that, and it's funny to watch really, really small kids play it because you're just like, oh, you have no idea.

26:52 Like and they love it, you know what I mean? Like you shoot all the ducks, and then what's funny, the little dog grabs the duck and it races up. It taunts you, it taunts you and does all that. And I'll be honest, I have been very lucky, like with the arcade expo, I get there usually an hour before we open. So I like I know where my stand is. I've done it 10 years, so I just kind of go look around and play some games before we open, open. And I'll go into Duck Hunt Room and play while nobody's looking, and I'm realizing, holy shit, I'm really bad. And it's like, uh, and I play it, but then like I could pick up the Dreamcast, play football, basketball.

27:33 It just shows the games that you have like true interest in, you're good at, and games you weren't that good at. And I thought picking up the duck hunt gun would just be a breeze. And then you go into the tournament room, and I get breaks throughout during the expo, and I was walking through, and I remember peeking my head into the duck hunt room and the tournament that was going on, and you're literally seeing people use this equipment that's from the early 90s, late 80s, and they're sniping these ducks like rapid fire, and they're getting perfect scores, and guys are talking shit to each other, and it just shows. I feel like if you put the time and energy into anything like over time, you can become a master shooter at that shit. I used to love the um Sonic Knuckles Hog on uh Sega.

28:18 I guess that was Sega too. I used to love that Sonic and uh Tails and Knuckles, like Sonic and Knuckles is probably one of my favorite games all time. It it is so good, and it was almost like kind of more futuristic uh Sonic. Sonic, the funny thing about that is is like that was such a rivalry, and you know, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails was basically battling Mario and Luigi, but I don't think I think what happened was you had people that were Nintendo kids or you were a Sega kid or you had both. And and if you had both, you're either your parents were rich or you're just spoiled rotten. And and it was funny. It's like I look back and I've had friends ask me and people I've talked to about games, and they go, like a guy at Game Exchange, when you're just waiting, and and he'll ask, like, you know, what did you used to play and stuff?

29:08 And I'm like, I was a Sega family, we were Sega. Not that we were against Nintendo, but it's hilarious because I remember my childhood neighbor to the left of me was a Super Nintendo family, so I played there at there at his house. He played Sega at mine, but we just never switched it up, and it was funny. And the reason I got a Super Nintendo, I was in college and I was dog sitting, and I had a dog sit for this couple, and they didn't have video game systems sub Super Nintendo, and so I asked them if I could play it, and they're like, Yeah, just go to input two or whatever, and you can play whatever you want. So I played it all weekend while I'm watching this fucking dog, and next thing you know, I was like, How much of these on eBay?

29:49 And you know, and because even though it's rare and it's like out of date, not rare, but it's like to find one in great shape, there's still so many. So I just was able to buy one for like a hundred bucks. And and the game that I'll be honest, if you're talking about favorite games, my favorite video game of all time, um, going way back is Paperboy. Uh Paperboy is I remember that. Yeah, it was the best. You have a bicycle and you drive and you throw the papers, and if you you if you threw a paper to a subscriber, you got a point. Yeah, and it would like knock that house down. But there was people that weren't subscribed and you would throw it through their window.

30:31 I'm telling you, oh my god. I'm telling you, and it's like you could throw like the houses that aren't subscribed, you basically are mad at them, so you throw a fucking paper through their window or anything. But what's funny when you didn't deliver a paper, because every every level was Monday, then the next day was Tuesday, and you delivered seven days a week. So when you would miss a subscriber because something's running at you, or a car is trying to hit you, or there's a skateboard, or all these distractions, if you didn't hit that house, they unsubscribe. So now you've lost a subscriber. So if you lost all your subscribers, even though you're still playing, you're done. That's quite hard to do. If you gain this, if you gain the subscribers, then you keep getting more people and you get more points when you're throwing it.

31:14 Because what you're trying to do is throw it on the front door. And if you honest, there was a mailbox, and you would think throwing it in a mailbox on that old school video game system would be hard, but it literally would just land in there and it'd be like and you have points. But what was also a challenge of that game was funny, you're driving and you go two blocks, and then next thing you know, you're crossing the road, and there's literally motorcyclists that they look all the same. They got this spiky, crazy hair, and they're on those long motorcycles that have the long rails, and they're just riding. It's like and you got to cross with your little bicycle, and then you get to the fucking final, you get to the final thing, and it's like a fucking uh bike park, and you go over ramps, and there's like doors, and there's like electric, a laser thing, and you're just riding through your dodge in the water, and then you hit the finish line, and your player throws his hands up, both arms up, like he's celebrating, and there's a crowd.

32:13 That's what's hilarious. There's a crowd at the end of your newspaper ride and your bonus lane celebrating you, and then you get all these points, and then next thing you know, it's like say that was Monday, the screen goes Tuesday, and then you're back on the bicycle delivering again. They have uh video games now that like picks up hookers and oh yeah, kills people and runs them over, and and like GPA people and like well you couldn't do that shit on paper, boy. That would be insane. But if somebody asked me like what your what your favorite like you know game is, it depends on my life because I've never really been like hardcore video games, dabbled, right? Like Nintendo when I was younger and then the Sega.

32:55 But when I got into my adult years, I picked up an Xbox at one point. Yeah, let me tell you, doing like those like Buffy games where it's like you don't shoot and kill things, but it's like strategic and drinking wine and getting super drunk and playing those games. Yeah, they're fun. That was kind of like life for a little while. Yeah, I mean, I I have gotten, I think over time I've played every system. I've tried to um, like for example, I was a Sega kid, I've got to play some of the old ones, but I've had a PS4. I've done, you know, the one I haven't had yet is a PS5. Um, I've done Xbox before as well. Um, but I get with me, I'm kind of funny. Like I'll get burnt out, or I want to move on, or like I'll play it, or I'll feel like I'm playing too much.

33:40 What I want to do is probably my next move was get the PS5, get a few games, and I mainly just play sports or like wrestling games. But do you get the live stuff where you play with other people? I do that, like where I will play people. It is funny how quick people will quit, like if they're losing or something like that, so it gets frustrating. But if you did there was some friends that can actually play, like I remember having some friends, and that was always cool, like texting your friend and being like, Hey, let's play NBA 2K, and we're playing each other and we could talk. I've never never been big on like the microphone route, but like it was fun. Some of them even you could even talk through the TV back in the day. But uh, what was really cool about a lot of games was like uh talking about back to the Sega, and they had it on Nintendo as well.

34:27 It's like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, uh, two very sleeper games. Jeopardy, what was so fascinating about that was the questions, yeah, they were outdated, but the thing was you beep in, you had daily doubles, you competed, and your computer person, to make it a little bit fair, they weren't gonna make the computer person answer everything or you get your ass kicked. Because some of the questions are hard. But if you're playing and say you beep in and you missed it, and the computer takes a chance, if they don't know, or the game wants to give you a break and I let them answer, they just put triple X. Like it literally just says three X's, and it'd be like boop, boop, boop, and they missed, and then they move on to the next question.

35:09 But what was cool it's like you had to type it out, you felt like it was real with the Jeopardy one, and Alex Trebek was literally on the game, as he voiced the game, and then with Wheel of Fortune, what was cool? Wheel of Fortune was exactly like the TV show, and you could buy and bid and do all that shit, but what was crazy was like Wheel of Jeopardy. I knew I was playing a game. Wheel of Fortune is one of those things where you would get lost in your mind, and for a minute there you're thinking, Holy fuck, I just want to trip to Hawaii, like because I've been hustled. And then and then it's like, and then my I remember my favorite joke my parents would always say is when I was growing up, because I would play these games a lot.

35:52 My parents would say, Oh, is that print out the system? Like, is that gonna print that much? You know, like like you know, because you think, and um it's just interesting, and like a lot of these games you can still find, like like the Oregon Trail, um, the state of Oregon. Oregon Trail, I don't know what that was. I don't know if it's because I think some comedian was was joking about that, where it was like, you know, we didn't you didn't have computers at home, like it you didn't have all these like millions of dollars to get these new computers. So you go to the school and you go to this green screen with the Oregon Trail, and you thought you were just like, oh my god, I'm in this, you know, this like with this bull and and and and well you you think about it, those computers had no benefit for us at home.

36:38 All they could do is word process or calculators. So it's like it's like what what would be the point of a mom and dad who's on a fixed income back in the day, even though money was way better back then, um, can't travel farther, would be able to buy a computer just so their kid plays Oregon Trail, they're gonna buy something a little bit fancier. And but the thing about you're completely right, because Oregon Trail was a black and green screen, and you got real diseases, and you had your family, and you traveled, and you had to navigate with Indians and trade. So well, it is so what I was gonna say is funny, the state of Oregon's tourism site is the only place you can play it for free online now. You can play the full Oregon trail on the state of Oregon's website.

37:22 So the visitoregon.com, like their tourism site, it's free. You go on there, enter your five family things. I'll be honest, doing later. I've beat it three times already, and and what's cool is there's multiple routes, but there's not many. So you can either go two routes on like when you get farther into the game, they ask you questions of like, do you want to go this way, do you want to go that way? And I've done that. Now, the thing that as a kid, it seems so much harder trying to travel your wagon down the river because the water's moving and you're trying to because you have to dock your fucking wagon, like there's just a little block in the water, and you gotta move your wagon from like one side of the river all the way down as it's moving.

38:05 But when you land, you're there. I don't remember it being that intense. Oh, it's great. And so, like, like the thing with the honey, here's another thing. Say you, okay, say you're like this is what'll happen to you. Okay, you have a family in there and you're wagon. I and I believe, again, don't quote me, it's either four or five people, it's you and your few others, and you're riding, okay, and then out of nowhere, your wife, Betsy Seuss, got the flu. So it says Betsy's got influenza, so you know you gotta keep moving. Yeah, well, and I don't I don't even think there was medicine. I think at that point, either people got magically better or they died, and so then you had chloric, and then you get dehydration, and then diarrhea.

38:47 There was all these different things. Yeah, and so you're riding, you're riding, and you get to a place, okay, bam, your fucking wheel just broke, and one of your ox is dead. Okay, so now you trade with the person around town, and you trade and you get you trade some clothes for an ox or a or a wheel. Well, then you realize, okay, I just have no money. I just traded for an ox, and I just realized my whole family's sick, and I need fucking food. So your station where you're at, so you go to hunt. Well, you got squirrels, bison, deer, but when your guy's turning, he's spinning.

39:27 But if they drop you in a hunting land and you don't, and it's the way the game sets it up, they can stick you in a little circle and there's just rocks and trees around you, and even though animals are running on the screen, your bullet can't go through that rock or tree. So then you have to go hunt again. Now, the good thing hunting was free, but say you're mad, say you crash out and you're like, I can't shoot these fucking animals, and you just start unloading your bullets. Now you have no bullets, so now you can't hunt. So the thing about it, you would want to get to lands like in the lane as you travel west with Indians where you could trade the Native Americans for food and level. They also had general stores, a lot of the forts. The forts would have a general store, but again, if you got farther down, you'd have money.

40:10 But they would give you different occupations. When you start, you start as a banker, a carpenter, a uh, I believe the third one is a uh farmer, and then your family is just a family, and you get in and you have to have ox, you have to have clothes, you gotta have wheel axle, you gotta have wheels, you gotta have everything for the trip, and then you gotta have bullets. And and what's funny, when you start, and it's gonna have you either start again, don't quote me, but I believe Missouri, or I believe you can start in Philadelphia, or like not Philadelphia or like Pennsylvania area, or you can start in Ohio, somewhere in those areas, or even DC.

40:50 But then as you're going across, it gives you those options of your occupation, your location, but as you start, you're like, this is getting easy as fuck. I'm loaded up, family's healthy, we're moving forward, and then you start getting to like the Dakotas or Kansas and all that stuff, and you're like, oh god, we all got disease, we all got diarrhea. I mean, it gets it gets real. So how come that feels so intense now? But like as a child, I was like, this is okay. Because it's so because for a child for us, it was so basic and easy. Like, like you gotta think about that they were only feeding us stuff at a minimum. Like when we started, we had yeah cartoons, too.

41:34 Um uh Rocco's Modern Life, a lot of those had narratives that you didn't really see or picture. Dexter's Laboratory. I mean older than you, and so there's like you know, the Bugs Bunny era, the Mickey Mouse era, all that kind of which there's still people that are obsessed with all those characters, and like I mean, for example, like I don't think I mentioned on here, you know, I do that through the mail. Lionel with the Thundercats. Uh, Thundercats have always been my favorite. It was in the 80s. I got lucky because Cartoon Network showed it in the 90s. I finally, I mean, shout out to him. He's in his late 80s, early 90s, I believe. Uh, the voice of Lionel is still alive. I mailed him a Thundercats comic in a book.

42:15 He autographed both of them to me, even wrote uh Lion Oh. So it shows even at that late age, he still got it, he's still there. And after looking at his successes and looking at the address, I realized he didn't he probably didn't have a lot of people writing recently, and a lot of people didn't think about that. So it was cool to do that, but that was another one, and then the funny thing, you bring up all those characters, we talk about toys and beanie babies and stuff. Every single one of those toys you mention um and bring up, they all have a they all had their run. And what I mean by this, they had a fast food run, they had toys in the store, they sold blankets, they sold mattress, they sold uh mattress pads, they sold uh uh sleeping bags, backpacks, lunch boxes.

43:07 All these big relevant cartoons at one time, even if they're old or or outdated, they had their run. I mean, they had some kind of memorabilia or merchandise. Sometimes they circle back. Like I think SpongeBob is like circling back. Yeah, a lot of things. I think like Scooby-Doo is like a big, you know, Scooby-Doo stays relevant for sure. Yeah. I mean, there's some stuff it just it kind of doesn't circle around, like, you know, which I get. Like, and it's and there's new animations and there's some things that can't stay the same. Of course, people die, people artists change, different uh production, but but it is cool to see some of the brands still around. It is cool to see too how certain generations react to those different different brands.

43:49 But you know, the thing about it too that a lot of people don't realize is that with those runs and with those toy runs and stuff, they're yeah, all the These things came out, but we talk about McDonald's, and that's a perfect example. When McDonald's started putting toys in bags, there's actually a a great YouTuber, and I don't have his info on me, but if you YouTube it, there is multiple YouTube videos where they will show you every McDonald's toy from 1990 to 2000, and they will literally show you the the the they'll show you pictures of it, everything, they'll give you details. It is so fucking cool, and it brings you back.

44:30 It's something that I think you would love. It just shows you all the toys that goes down the road. But with other places, they did that too. And like Burger King, they were so lucky back in the day to get the Pokemon line that they got. They made such a killing off that. They made a killing off Shaq. They made a killing off a lot. Uh the Legos, whenever I was like That was big. When I was little, like single digits, because I used to love a happy meal. What kid didn't? Like, you know, you got a burger and fries and or nuggets or whatever your thing is. Well, Lego kids, they're and then you're like the toy, the toy's the best part, and you're like, oh my god. Oh for good. Um button. Well Lego kids, they were their dream instead of going to Disney World, like a Disney kid, Lego kid want to go to Lego Land.

45:14 Yeah, that's still a fucking thing now. Do you remember like the nuggets? Do you remember the nuggets they had in there? Oh, the nugget McDonald nugget toys. They actually had Halloween ones. You could make them Dracula and make that those are actually still relevant. I actually, it's funny you bring that up. When they did McDonald's recently did those adult happy meals, they put those nuggets in, but they made them like kind of abstract and looking. And I also bought Kerwin Frost is a uh artist that collabed with McDonald's and made all these special um chicken nuggets, and I remember collecting those as well. This is what I was remembering now. Do you remember these? The little burgers and the hotels. So Danielle's showing the vintage McDonald's Happy Meal choice.

45:57 These were like transformer things. Yeah. I don't know why I love those damn things. Well, it's it's like it was almost like playing house, and people around the days they would have those and pretend like they were domesticated there. Oh, there's the nuggets. How cute is that? Oh, yeah. Because they see they all had outfits. All the McDonald's nuggets had outfits and personality. And see, that was the whole reason the McDonald's has all those characters. You know, you have Ronald, you have Grimace, you have Hamburglar, you got uh which the girl I always thought was a platypus, but I believe it actually is a giant duck. Um, and uh so a lot of these McDonald's toys were just they either theme them to their own characters or they get the licensing.

46:40 And that's something I always would want to know is how those license deals go down because you know you they had to be a bidding war, just like companies do to get sponsors. It's like we want this over them. Because like Burger King was doing the thing. How even Arby's was doing the thing. Taco Bell. Uh Taco Bell had Star Wars. Do you remember those California raisins? Wasn't that like an Arby's thing or something? Or was it well California raisins was their own thing, and but they but but someone someone I'll have to look up what brand, restaurant, they had some kind of release. And but yeah, those toys are actually what's funny about the California raisins, they actually have their own stage. So when they sold those toys, they actually sold a California raisins stage that you could put your raisins on in for collectors.

47:26 That's the hard find. The raisins aren't as hard, but those five my grandma, shout out to Mary Lou. She uh before she passed, I remember she had some raisins, and we I believe we flipped them on eBay. Yeah, oh my god. Well, see, raisin. When you talk about that, I think California Raisins was a push to push the actual raisin product, like like actual raisins. Like we have uh took a show too. Well, there's raisin brand also got behind them because what they did was raisin brand put the face of a of one of the the raisin people, the characters, as like a plastic backpack, and you could buy the cereal. They actually had the raisining plastic wrapped over, and I believe it was like a raisin brand mask or something.

48:12 But but I think the California raisin is just like Deion Sanders with these uh pecans or no almonds. I'm sorry, almonds. He's pushing people to buy almonds. It's the same thing with like they try to take a product like uh and push it like like uh Florida oranges, you know, that kind of deal. So I think the situation is that Ray, the Ray, California raisins, they were just they were popping. And and anything like that is very catchy and fun. I mean, anytime you can get something cool and themed, but like Taco Bell. I mean, who who will never forget the Yockiero Chihuahua? I mean, that was and they sewed those plush, and to be honest, Taco Bell, probably the smartest toy they did, besides jumping on the Star Wars line, when they released those little chihuahuas, you could push the the little Paul and it would go Yokiero Taco Bell, and you're like, holy shit! And so that was super fucking cool.

49:07 And see, and then the big the big fight with the it's March right now, with March Madness coming up. A lot of brands bidded on March Madness, and Pizza Hut always had March Madness. And what's cool about Pizza Hut, they would sell basketballs that were actually like themed for that March Madness. And I remember collecting those, and recently a couple years ago, I got one. I'm actually eBaying it now in my pantry. Mystery loves to sell and buy over 800 uh positive feedback, over 800 items, so check it out, anyways. Just had to give my eBay a shout out. But they I have a March Madness basketball that's literally miniature that Pizza Hut just sold last year, and it was March Messi, and it literally on it it says, I think Pizza the Hut or something like that, or something about pizza.

49:55 And I was like, I'm gonna go get one. And when I got there, they were like, hey, you gotta they only had they didn't have an air pump, and I think a lot of them did come blown up. They gave me one that wasn't blown up, so I had to come home, stick my air pump in, and blow my ball up. And uh, but I was like, but I was like, this is dope, and it was it was cheap. And I was DoorDashed, and I remember that night, and I popped in there and I was like, Y'all got them ball, the March Manage basketballs, because what I try to do, I don't get on every trend, but if there is something trending, I either think I personally want it, I personally want to get it for a friend that's into it, or I personally want to eBay. Like, like Paige, shout out Paige is a big collector of peeps.

50:36 Pete Paige is like a huge collector of peeps. So I when Dollar Tree will will collab with peeps, I'll try to get her a peeps plush that they got. I'm like, I just know certain friends collect random stuff. Like right now, uh, shout out to Dollar Tree. We were talking about this at lunch. My friend right now is obsessed, she's a huge fan of John Cena. Christina was on episode one, and uh Dollar Tree has a set now with Kevin Owens, AJ Styles, The Rock, and John Cena. They're selling WWE toys, which was unheard of, especially for a Dollar Tree. It's very, very unheard of for them to have some exclusive branding. So it's just cool what every store is trying to get on the collector market. Well, I'm just glad that you gave me the monkey you had because the orangutan, yes.

51:20 The orangutan. It looked just I mean, it's the cutest thing. I don't collect any kind of stuffed animals. That's just not my thing, but I could not repeat it. It's a cute, it's a cute ass orangutan. Oh, you should be able to do it. It's done perfectly. I got it up. She was like, Oh my god, oh my god, it's not mine. I was like, No, bitch, it's mine. It's it's perfect. And I I I love those because it was like when like working at the zoo, it was interesting how many people love uh those plush things, and it would really change kids' days and change their mood and change people. So we had so many plushes of different animals, and I just remembered animals would get pumped out, and even the adults are wanting to collect them, so it was interesting. I remember the orangutan release.

52:02 I I was like, I gotta get you one, and when I got you one, it was like you were very excited, but it's also too you stare at it, it's so realistic. And orangutans are so smart and interesting, like uh not only like the Amber who's famous at the zoo that has that interacts and stuff, yeah. In DC, I remember going to DC and there was an orangutan in a little bubble pod that was on the side of the uh ape house where the gorillas and the orangutans are, and it was sitting there in a little bubble with a sheet, and it was playing peekaboo with me, and it just shows the intelligence, and also a lot of times orangutans they can actually they're so strong and they're unpredictable that they can take their finger like a key and maneuver a lock or twist a lock out or do it in like you know they they they really are very powerful.

52:53 Oh, they are they they are they they're very smart, and it's like it's just very interesting all the things they can do. But yeah, people are um people are very, very uh get shocked and surprised, but nowadays it doesn't surprise me because, like you said, they're so intelligent. Speaking of the collecting item stuff, do you remember those um RB glasses during the holidays? I just thought about that. I would love to have a set of those. I believe they still do. Yeah, but you gotta be careful, you gotta be careful though, because you gotta look at who made those because people don't realize, and it's it's now getting flagged on Facebook and eBay. Um people now are getting more common sense to it, but McDonald's released a uh a line of Batman glasses when Batman Park came out.

53:43 Those are all poisonous. Um, those all the glass, the the chemical and everything, they're horp, you're not supposed to drink out of them. They they're actually being around them and touching them. They have like some kind of a spec, some kind of form on it. You have to look it up. I actually had a set at one time I saw it on the marketplace years ago, and I thought about it. I only had them in my possession for a bit, but those are bad. You're not supposed to drink out of those. So it's interesting, some of these releases. And nowadays they're using safer material, there's so much, and and people still do a glass thing. Get the older one. Well, no, you just look into it to make sure it's the right fit. Now, um, you know, because like like the Kentucky Derby Festival, they put a glass out every year, and I love getting a Kentucky Derby glass.

54:27 I'll get one this year. But the thing about it, I think they've kept the same glass, the same paint, but you just never know over time what it is. But yeah, those uh those Batman McDonald's glasses, it was always wild how they were controversial, but it's funny those are the glasses though that you're so quick to find in a uh goodwill on a marketplace, and people don't know. And so it's just interesting watching YouTube and like flipping things and stuff, what people are interested in, and what people are also like don't get that, like that's no good. Like there's there's certain things like like the uh you know uh toys that used to be able to squeeze and it like blurts stuff out and ball, like a lot of stuff can get it gets toxic over time, but um but there's also some things that it's just like those toys that were made that aren't made like they used to, and that's that's the biggest thing.

55:23 It's like you can get a toy, some of these toys back 50 years ago, and it's like it's better made than what you're buying now from Mattel or uh any of that. Stuff is like that. But thank you for being on the show. I really appreciate it. I uh want to let you give a little shout out before you uh come off the show and like if anybody wants to reach out or anything that you're interested in right now. Um I'm looking for a job. Well, you're looking for a job now. Can they reach out to you on Instagram or Facebook? Yeah, I'm on Facebook, um, private page, but I'm also on Instagram. Uh Facebook Danielle Perkins, Instagram, Three Bird Nights.

56:08 Um, feel free to hit me up. Okay, for sure. And uh I want to thank everybody for listening, tuning, and downloading. Um, definitely visit www.bibandwisle.com. Um, the podcast website is going again. It's going great. Um working with Pod uh uh Bean. Um and then uh actually, excuse me, I take that back. Working with Podpage. Um, and then um also Buzz Sprout, shout out to them. They're ones put on my podcast. So going great with them as well. So uh Babylon with Sleazy, the podcast, Facebook, Instagram, show love. I want to thank uh the new followers and uh the international listeners. So got a few more episodes for this season.

56:50 Got about uh, I think around uh 15 left overall. Um, so uh be pumping those out. Got a few more guests and a couple solo episodes, but uh give this one a listen. We're recording this actually on uh March 18th, but this won't be coming out till next week, around the 25th. So uh enjoy all the past episodes and the current ones. We are out. Bye. Peace. Thank you.