Wonder Man, LEGO Enterprise, & Chromatic Conundrum
About This Episode
We reflect on our final season with the kids of Hawkins, Indiana, check out some home tech to bring you a bit more security and peace of mind, and play a colorful first-person puzzle game where light is the key.
(May contain some explicit language.)
Patreon » patreon.com/genxgrownup
Discord » GenXGrownUp.com/discord
Facebook » fb.me/GenXGrownUp
Twitter » GenXGrownUp.com/twitter
Website » GenXGrownUp.com
Podcast » GenXGrownUp.com/pod
Merchandise » GenXGrownUp.com/merch
Theme: “Grown Up” by Beefy » beefyness.com
Apple » itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/genxgrownup-podcast/id1268365641
CastBox » castbox.fm/channel/GenXGrownUp-Podcast-id2943471?country=us
Pocket Casts » pca.st/8iuL
Audible » amz.run/6yhR
TuneIn » tunein.com/radio/GenXGrownUp-Podcast-p1020342/
Spotify » spoti.fi/2TB4LR7
iHeart » www.iheart.com/podcast…
Amazon Music » amzn.to/33IKfEK
Show Notes
- Wonder Man » youtu.be/wHuWmjXsReU?si=7SmH9w6VqMQUDR_7
- Fackham Hall » youtu.be/zztJyEY8VuQ?si=xkbcz0fqwA157BUe
- Stranger Things Season 5 » youtu.be/PssKpzB0Ah0?si=WevgJiDNXxaQVCOF
- Ring Battery Doorbell » amzn.to/3Z7zRDA (affiliate)
- XGaming Haptic Feedback Kit » genxgrownup.com/xgaming
- LEGO Star Trek Enterprise NCC-1701-D » bit.ly/4awGyW4
- Dustland Delivery » store.steampowered.com/app/2943280/Dustland_Delivery/
- Hogwarts Legacy » www.hogwartslegacy.com/en-us
- Chromatic Conundrum » thinkygames.com/games/chromatic-conundrum/
- Chromatic Conundrum Live Stream » youtube.com/live/ekB0IvaTamU
- Watch Gearge’s First Long Form Video in Years » youtu.be/LvM0vwmC708?si=wsZcnqMc-dcIYMz2
- NYC Toy Fair » www.toyfairny.com/
- Shrinking S03 » youtu.be/vGWSq5mra-w?si=_J5oyT9_–CLCnUz
- Email the show » podcast@genxgrownup.com
- Visit us on YouTube » GenXGrownUp.com/yt
TRANSCRIPT
| Jon | Welcome back, Gen X Grown Up podcast listener, to this episode 205 of the Gen X Grown Up podcast. I am John, joining me as always, of course, my friends and co-hosts. Mo is here, hey man. |
| Mo | Hey, how’s it going? |
| Jon | And you know that George is along for the ride, hey George. |
| George | Hey, how’s it going, everybody? |
| Jon | Good, good, good. Hey, in this episode, you know, we reflect on the final season with the kids of Hawkins, Indiana. don’t know. you know In this episode, we’re going to reflect on our final season with the kids of Hawkins, Indiana, check out some home tech to bring you a bit more security and peace of mind, and play a colorful first-person puzzle game where light is the key. We’re go to have those topics and many more coming your way in this episode, of course. Before we do, it is time for some fourth listener email. And our fourth listener for this episode is Christopher M., |
| Jon | Now, Christopher dropped us a line on the YouTube republish of the podcast. So a week after you get it here in podcast land, it also drops on our YouTube channel. And that’s where Christopher saw the Christmas wish lists. |
| George | Thank you. |
| Jon | Epipode. third Thuffering Thucatash. |
| Mo | loveri thank youdesh |
| Jon | That’s where Christopher saw the Christmas wish list episode that we put out just toward the end of the year last year. And here’s what Christopher had to say. My big sister and I would circle everything we wanted in the catalog and write our names next to it as if my mom couldn’t figure out who it was that circled every single thing on the G.I. Joe page. |
| Jon | i I don’t think I ever wrote to Santa. i can’t even recall sitting on his lap at the mall, though I know I did. There’s at least one photo of a confused and terrified little me on his lap. |
| Jon | He wraps it up by saying, happy holidays, you guys. You’ve made 2025 little less crap since I discovered you. |
| Mo | huh What work do we ask, right? |
| Jon | ah Really? |
| George | That’s a tall order these days. |
| Jon | Right. Well, just a little less. You just, you know, it’s the bar is set so low. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | we could just. ah We’re happy, Christopher, that able to bring a little bit of a little bit of light into your life and make your day a little less crap. I hope 2026 gets better for you and you continue to listen. We’re happy you found us. |
| Jon | We appreciate that you wrote in. Of course, we appreciate every time the fourth listener takes time out of their day to drop us a line and let us know what they think of the show or what memories we brought back for them. |
| George | you |
| Jon | If you would like your email, if you would like your email featured here on the show, it’s drop dead easy. Just hit us up at podcast at genxgrownup.com. We’ll read every single one and most of them, like Christopher’s, |
| Jon | We’ll eventually make the show. Okay. That good business in the rearview mirror. It’s time to jump into the body of episode 205 right after this very quick break. |
| Jon | Let’s get the ball kicked off talking about what we always talk about here at the beginning of this first segment. Media we have been enjoying since we last had a chance to speak. Now, this could be comics or music or books or music. |
| Jon | This could be comic or music or books or television or movies, whatever you have been enjoying in the world of media. And Mo, want to start with you. You have something that, i as I remember, both you and George were looking forward to the last time What have been checking out? |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Oh yeah, for sure. It’s the show Wonder Man on Disney+. plus |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Mo | So yet another foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although i think they’re doing a better job with the TV series these days, it seems, in the movies, I would say. |
| Mo | But um Wonder Man, um for those of you know, is basically about a person who is trying to become an actor. Yeah. And it is a very, very funny. |
| Jon | Mm. |
| Mo | They had a lot of humor in this. The acting in it is actually amazing. The guy playing Wonder Man is, I i apologize for messing up his name, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who, if you you know him, he played the young Morpheus in The Matrix Resurrected. |
| Jon | Oh, okay. |
| George | Oh, OK. |
| Jon | Oh, all right. Sure. |
| Mo | Okay, that’ probably yeah that’s probably where people have seen him. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | And Ben Kingsley in it is also re-ramping his a character of Trevor Slattery, who, you know, from the third Iron Man movie, I think it was, and Shang-Chi, you see him in those two, plus a bunch of little shorts I know all over the place. |
| George | Yep. |
| George | He was, yeah, the original ah fake evil guy. |
| Mo | Fake Mandarin. Yeah. |
| Jon | Right. Yeah. |
| Mo | And so the the crux of this is that this does take place in the regular Marvel universe is that he’s trying to be an actor, but he actually has superpowers and you don’t really see it very much like through the whole show. show um It’s eight episodes. They’re only a half hour episodes each. So it’s a super easy to consume these. |
| Mo | And the thing is that there’s a rule that people won’t hire you if you have pop powers. My friend says question, do you have superpowers? You got to check. No. Otherwise, I won’t hire you. And there’s a whole episode as to why. |
| Mo | They have a whole episode explaining why. |
| Jon | Oh, okay. I was about to ask you why, but now I can find out. Okay, okay all right. |
| Mo | Yeah, there’s a whole episode. It’s it’s called the doorman clause, and you’ll see why. It’s when you do it um it’s it’ it’s funny. |
| Jon | Mm. |
| Mo | he The actor, the guy the main guy, he plays an insecure… actor they go into his home i mean they do such a good job of like rounding out a character you know which they sometimes fail to do in a lot of these movies because of time or whatever but this one they you really get a feel for the guy you feel bad for him at times his power is not always completely under his control |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | too, which is kind of part of the problem. Like when he gets upset, it kind of pops out. But so it’s basically him trying to hide it. And then he meets Ben Kingsley, who, if you remember, he is an actor who played the Mandarin. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | And they’re he’s trying to get his career back on track. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | So this comes a little bit of a buddy thing where he’s kind mentoring him, too, about how to be an actor and how to get, know, how to do auditions and how to get about being nervous anymore, that kind of stuff. |
| Mo | We started watching it. um Like said, first we were shocked there’s only like, you know, 25 minute episodes or whatever. And my my wife’s like, okay, let’s watch a few. And then, you know, we got to stop I got a bunch of stuff to do. was like, okay, fine. |
| Mo | So we watched a few and then I started like backing out and she’s like, what are you doing? I’m like, I’m stopping. You said stop. She’s like, we can watch one more. |
| George | ah |
| Mo | So we wound up watching the rest of the series. um So it that it was very entertaining, ah very easy to consume. You don’t need to know much at all about the Marvel Universe to enjoy it. |
| Mo | It stands alone by itself. And I just thought it was very enjoyable. |
| Jon | and it Did you say it all came out at once or did you have to wait for it? |
| Mo | Yep, they dropped them all. |
| Jon | It did all drop at once. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | Yep, they dropped all the episodes. |
| Jon | Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Now it sounds like George had had much comment. I think you had said you didn’t get a chance to watch this yet, but you were also looking forward to it. Right? |
| George | That is an accurate statement, sir. |
| Jon | Yeah. So, so based on Mo’s input, are you more or less likely now to watch it? |
| George | Oh no, 100% likely. I mean, that’s kind of the way Wonder Man is portrayed in the books. |
| Jon | Was it a for sure already? Okay. |
| George | It’s a little bit more of a humorous look into the Marvel Universe as opposed to the super dramatic, you know, high stakes stuff that you might get in, say, like an Avengers book or something like that. |
| Jon | Okay. Okay. So it sounds right. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Not quite to the extreme of a Deadpool, but just slightly, yeah, yeah, just slightly back of that. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | Oh, no, no, not nearly that far. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | And probably, probably a little closer to a Scott Lang Ant-Man tone. |
| Mo | Yes, that’s that’s a good comparison. |
| Jon | Okay. Yeah. |
| Mo | Just a little bit of humor in there, you know. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. Right. |
| Jon | Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with a little levity in in shows like this. |
| Mo | Exactly. |
| Jon | doesn’t always have to be doom and gloom, right? Basically, it isn’t the end of the world for this guy. He’s trying to get a job, it sounds like. |
| Mo | yeah he’s trying to get He’s trying to get a role. |
| Jon | Because really, that’s the thrust. |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | I like it. Yeah, okay. |
| Mo | So that’s all I got. How about you, John? What do you got this week? |
| Jon | Yeah, so you remember, we talked right after the holidays and we had a little break and we’re like, man, it’s tough to pick what to talk about. There’s so many things that you kind of want to talk about and you skipped a bunch of stuff. |
| Jon | But I want to rewind to something that I watched right at the end of last year. It came out toward the end of 2025 and I watched it during our holiday break. And the reason I want to talk about it now is that I’ve rewatched it twice again. |
| Jon | It’s one of those movies. |
| Mo | Really? |
| Jon | So it’s called Fackham Hall, which ah is kind of like it’s like Downton Abbey. It’s like the name of this wealthy early 1900s mansion in this family called Fackham and whatever. |
| Mo | Okay. ah |
| Jon | It’s very British, as you might imagine. But if you’ve ever had the problem where your wife or girlfriend or significant other wants to watch Downton Abbey, and |
| Mo | You don’t. |
| Jon | You’d much rather watch something silly like The Naked Gun. This is of like if Downton Abbey and Naked Gun had an illegitimate child and it was called Facom Hall. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| Jon | The premise is it’s it’s so, and like what is that, 18th century, whatever that is, early 1900s, right? It’s so much in the that gilded age of everybody’s got the, yeah it’s like the the the servants that live in the house and they don’t talk to the people who own the house and this very aristocracy kind of thing. And theres there is a story going on where there is an orphan who’s sent to deliver a message to this wealthy family and there’s a murder while he’s there and he’s under suspect and But all along the while, it’s as if naked gun got spilled on this period piece. And there’s so many goofy slapstick things, sight gags, forced perspective silliness, people saying or doing things inappropriately, like, |
| Jon | there’s one example is there’s a there’s there’s a priest in this show who comes up several times. He’s a comic who you’ll probably recognize. I forget his name top of my head, but he has trouble reading his sermon. |
| Jon | So he’s like at this wedding and he’ll say something like standing. |
| George | you |
| Jon | The people in front of him going to be married and go, let us pray. You never marry. Wait, hold on. Let us pray. You never marry without love and there’s no love without God. right He just screws up each time. And I’m not going to give away the the payoff for this one. But at one point he says something like, we are here to marry these assholes. |
| Jon | And that’s just a flub. He didn’t mean to say that, he rewinds. What could that possibly be? It’s just so crazy and inappropriate. Someone runs out and there’s a, like you think he’s she’s gonna run to this beefy guy who’s down there with no shirt and really she runs to this weird like Hagrid looking dude pulling out a shit wagon or something. |
| Jon | It’s just all these subversions of expectations. And the reason I’ve watched it over and over is because it’s got those little sight gags. Now that you’ve seen the story, You can go back go, oh, I missed that one, or I missed that one. |
| Jon | They’ll weave these things into it. I’ve recommended it to several people. And and the name of it, by the way, is is a play on words in and of itself. Because when when the orphan is asked to deliver this message and go, where do I have to take it? |
| George | right. |
| Jon | Oh, I have to take, you have to take it to this downtown, to this to this mansion where these people live. And they go, oh, fuck them all. They’re like, that’s my feeling too. Fuck them all. So even the name of the the town and the city is kind of a play on words and a subversion of expectations. So it’s playing on a lot of streaming services. I think Amazon and Apple, you can rent it and things like that. But it’s a really light comedy. And unlike heavier things you might expect, and you know, Mo, you mentioned your Wonder Man, little levity is good, especially with what’s, you said how crappy 2025 and 2026 are leading up to be. It’s nice to have some some fun in that. So definitely recommend it. In fact, watch it twice or three times. That’s what I think. |
| Jon | ah Now, George, how about you? I’ve got to warn you. I see what you have on the list. i Like you have not seen Wonder Man, I have not completed this, but I’m eager to hear your thoughts about it. |
| Mo | Oh. Hmm. |
| George | Well, ah you’re warning me because you’re about to get mad when I spoil the shit out of this thing for you. |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| George | Is that what’s what you’re warning me for? |
| Jon | that That’s the theory, yes. Yes. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| George | So um it’s going to be hard because i I purposefully waited to put this on the the list until I figured, hey, February is good enough. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | That’s two months. Nobody who really enjoys the show is going to have not finished it. |
| Jon | You’re right. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | Yeah. Uh-oh. |
| George | within a two-month period of the final release of the final episode for season five of Stranger Things. |
| Jon | That’s fair. |
| George | Well, apparently, it’s that old Douglas Adams quote about the foolproof thing, you know, not understanding the proof of fools or whatever he said. |
| Mo | yeah Didn’t wait long enough. |
| Jon | ah Yes. |
| George | you know yeah um Okay, now I got to rework what I’m going to talk about. |
| Jon | Yep. Always make a better one. |
| George | I’ll say this. |
| Jon | Well, in real you know, I think you’re good, really. If somebody who has not heard can jump ahead. You’re right. Had I been dying to watch it, I think I would have been, I would have already watched it. So if. |
| George | Well, no, um I don’t want to spoil it for you because it’s that good in my opinion. |
| Jon | Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Beautiful. |
| George | So there are a lot of people who are on both sides of the fence of Stranger Things Season 5. |
| Jon | All right. |
| George | Some people hate it. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| George | Some people love it. Some people are kind in the middle like, eh, it was okay. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| George | Personally, I really, really enjoyed it. Now, I don’t know if that’s because of the fact that I waited until everything was out before I watched them all. I think that definitely helped because their season break was not the logical story break point, in my opinion. |
| Jon | me |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | okay |
| George | The other thing to note is, uh, stranger things does this very odd thing, um, that you don’t really figure out until you get to this final, uh, season. They stagger the number of episodes alternating between eight and nine each season. |
| George | I don’t know why. i don’t think there’s a reason, but if you go and look one season, we’ll have eight, the next season will have nine and so on and so forth all the way down through all five seasons. |
| Jon | Oh, interesting. |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | Um, But that kind of threw things in a little bit of a disarray for the break, right? Because we got, if I remember right, I think we got five episodes, then two, then one. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | Yeah, something like that. And the last episode was super long. |
| George | Right? |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | For this, yeah, well, that the last two, because episode seven was like an hour 20, and then episode eight was like two hours, was like well ah well over two hours or something like that. |
| Jon | That sounds right. Yeah. |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah, it was a movie essentially, yeah. Hmm. |
| Jon | Wow. I realize. Wow. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Is that the finale one? |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Eight? Is that the two hours? |
| George | It was, yeah it’s the finale. |
| Jon | Okay. Yeah. |
| George | So I think because I watched it all in one go over like a day and a half period, because, you know, it’s a lot, as Mo pointed out. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | um I think I got the benefit of being able to see the entire story when everything was still fresh in my mind from the previous episode. Yeah. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | I felt that the last two episodes did a tremendous job for servicing all the characters that have come and gone in Stranger Things and tied up all of the storylines in a satisfying way for me. |
| George | Not saying that I got everything I wanted. like Not everything happened the way i would have written it, but I was happy with what they did with it. And then they still threw a little |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| George | epilogue at the end that made everything okay and I thought the last scene in the final episode was maybe one of the most beautiful final scenes of any series I’ve ever seen because there is a callback to the original season as well as |
| Mo | who |
| Jon | Mm. Ooh. |
| George | hope for the next generation. Not saying they’re going to do a Stranger Things you know next generation. I don’t want them to do that. But they just left a little bit on the plate to let your imagination still have somewhere to wonder so that you don’t feel like Hawking’s is gone forever. |
| Jon | Mm. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | And I think that’s important because we find out at the end, and I don’t know why I didn’t make the… why I never did the math until now, but our main children, the main kids in the storyline, they all graduated in the best graduation year possible, 1989, the same year I graduated. |
| George | So I loved it. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | I know I’m a question, but that’s okay. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah, well, you old fuckers, I don’t give a shit. |
| Jon | oh or |
| George | ah They also did a great job of introducing a couple of new young actors to the series and one really, really old actress, although she didn’t i didn’t like her role that much and she didn’t get enough screen time for to warrant her appearance, so to speak. |
| George | um Linda Hamilton is in this as the military bad this season. |
| Jon | o |
| Mo | All of them have, yeah. |
| Jon | e |
| Mo | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jon | yeah yeah |
| George | She’s just not in there enough to make that worth it, really. It’s not enough of a payoff. It’s not like what we had in the previous seasons. So I think they just didn’t have enough time to bring her character along. There was too much to do. |
| Jon | They tend to do some stunt casting, bringing in 80s icons to use them. |
| George | They do. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | yeah |
| George | Yeah, and I think that that might have been a misstep this season. But I got to call out one. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| George | ah There’s a young man named Jake Connolly, and he plays Derek Turnbow. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. |
| George | ah You’ve already seen him, John, if you’ve gotten close to the middle. |
| Mo | A couple episodes in. Yeah. |
| George | He’s already been in there. He started off in season in episode three, I think it was. |
| Jon | Okay, I’ve seen images of him if I’ve not seen him yet, yeah. |
| George | hes He’s this little young kid that’s in the class of the sister of one of our main characters, and he’s kind of the fat, jerk, obnoxious kid in the class. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| George | Well, then you didn’t get past episode two, it sounds like. |
| Jon | No, i I think I saw the first two. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah, I think I saw the first two. |
| George | oh Wow, okay. |
| Jon | Is he the kid that was playing Ghosts and Goblins later that we had such a furor about? |
| Mo | No? |
| George | Yes, yes, same kid. |
| Jon | No? |
| Mo | Is he? |
| Jon | Okay. All right. |
| George | Yeah, that’s the one in his room. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah, absolutely. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| George | ah that That actor, that child actor, he play he turns in one of the most impressive performances this season of any of the child actors. |
| Jon | Mm. |
| George | He does an outstanding job with his role throughout the entire run from episodes three to eight that he does. |
| Jon | Wow. Mm. |
| George | It’s a good, solid series. It’s a great season to end up on. And if you liked any of the Stranger Things at all, I think it’s well worth it. |
| Mo | Yeah, I finished watching it and I agree with everything George said. I mean, I enjoyed it. I liked the way it ended. Like I thought the ending, the last 10 minutes of the last episode were just like, |
| George | a |
| Mo | it was just very satisfying. Like, it’s just like, oh okay. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | Rooftop scene. |
| Jon | That’s important. |
| Mo | You know, it’s like, it like just close that end of the story, you know, just totally was a, it was a bookend. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. That rooftop scene was so smart for them to do. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah. it was, it was definitely like a bookend. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | Like you finished it. a couple things I thought was just weird that ah one is they use CG to make everyone look younger. |
| George | A little bit, yeah. |
| Mo | And some of them, |
| Jon | Did they? |
| Mo | it was very jarring for me because I’m like, okay, Cheetos looks kind of odd. You know, like it was just because they, and they did it for all the kid actors because they all, you know, it’s been a long of time since the first one came out. |
| Jon | Sure. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | cause they’re all 45 now. Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah, exactly. |
| George | yeah |
| Mo | Like they’re all their twenties and they started this when they were in teens, you know? And also I thought the whole extra explanation about what the, the down under was, um I was like, did they need to add another level on top of that? |
| Mo | I’m not sure if they needed to. You know, like yeah it’s like a gateway. I’m like, OK, I thought I liked the kind of way it was, but I’m fine, whatever, you know, but and I’m being picky here. |
| George | right. |
| Mo | I mean, those are minor things that is easy to get past, you know, but generally I said, i don’t know how they could have ended it better, quite honestly. you know It’s not like a Game of Thrones thing where like you know everybody’s on the internet trying to come up with a better ending. |
| Mo | you know There are always going haters no matter what, no matter what ending they put out there. But overall, I was i thought it was very satisfying. I thought it’s like it was a good bookend for an extremely long and involved series. |
| George | Yeah, I think ah so. I understand Mo’s hesitation on the whole redefinition of the down under, upside down, whatever you want to call them. |
| George | um But I think that might also stem from Mo’s love of space and NASA. |
| Mo | ien Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. There was a lot of direct correlation stuff that might, I don’t know if it’s right, wrong, or whatnot. |
| Jon | yeah |
| George | Mo knows it way better than me. As a non-space guy, i was perfectly fine with that because it gave me an explanation as to the maneuverings of Vecna and the Mind Flayer. |
| George | it it kind of, to me, added a little bit more dimension, pardon the pun, to those characters. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| George | um I think that the locale redefinition helped me to see their relationship differently because I i think, in my head, i had it differently until this season as far as Vecna versus the Mind Flayer because… |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | I think anytime we talked about those characters, they were almost synonymous in a way that they were both these super awful bad things that the kids had no chance of defeating. |
| George | But there was no, which one is worse? |
| Mo | Yeah. Yeah. |
| George | Are they together? Are they blah, blah, blah. There was none of that until we got to the season, which gave it a little bit of depth for me that I i think I enjoyed. |
| Jon | I appreciate hearing that. just like a minute ago, I asked you, George, like now that you’ve heard what Mo has to say about Wonder Man, are you more or less likely to watch it? And my problem with this season, i think I told you, I went through season episode two of this season. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | And it wasn’t like I didn’t like it. My problem was really before it started that I had lost enthusiasm because it was so long between seasons. |
| Mo | Yeah, there’s a problem. |
| Jon | And I felt like |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Like, am I prepared to watch it? Do I need to go back and watch the first four kind of thing? But and like that’ that that probably so. If I did go back and watch the first four, that would make the momentum would probably help me push through it. But but knowing there’s something in there that of just what I remember about the seasons, your guys’ description of the satisfying… |
| Jon | conclusion, how it was left in such a way that it, you know, it wasn’t, there was finality, but not ultimate finality. There’s more there possibly in the future. i think all that makes me more likely now to, to go back and watch it. |
| Jon | So um the the fact that you enjoyed it so much makes me, I’m apt to go back probably this weekend and watch some more of it now. |
| George | Yeah. |
| George | I’ll say in closing, I think it was a better season than four was. |
| Mo | Yeah, I’d have to agree with that. |
| Jon | Oh, okay. Yeah. All right. |
| George | And I think that five suffers because of four’s missteps. |
| Jon | Mm. |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| George | In my opinion, I think people might be unfairly judging season five based off of season four, which admittedly was the weakest season of the five, at least for me. |
| Jon | Mm. |
| Jon | Mm. Right. Now, 4 had some good stuff, but but overall, yeah, right. |
| George | um It had some great stuff, but… |
| Mo | Right, right. But as a season, yeah. |
| George | As a fluid storyline, it was not the strongest of the five. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | A little disconnected. |
| George | i if If I go in order, I’d say one, two, three are exactly in that order, and then five is next, and then four is my weakest season. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Jon | And 4. |
| Mo | Yeah. I would go with that. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | um I think they they did some they did some nice wrapping up, like I said. ah The other thing we get ah this season, we get a lot more from the Wheelers and their whole family than we have in the past. |
| George | And I think that was nice to see because it had all been about the buyers, really, up until this point. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | And don’t get me wrong, I love Winona Ryder and give me David Harbour all day long. |
| Mo | ccc |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | that man is gold in almost anything he does these days. I love to watch him act, but it was nice to see the other family get a lot more love. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | yeah finally catching on |
| George | We, yeah, we, I mean, we don’t get, we get, we get a lot of stuff out of Harrington. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| George | We don’t get anything out of mother Henderson, which I kind of miss. She had a really funny kooky role. And of course, you know, she’s in the final that we see, but yeah, Yeah, seeing the Wheelers get really heavily, heavily involved in this season was, it was a nice change of pace, I thought. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Great. All right. You talked me into it. Get back into it. Thanks. All right. Stick a around. We’ll be you right back. Lovely. |
| Mo | I’m going to kick off. Sorry. I’m sorry. I’m going to kick off Tekken toys with something I bought recently, which is a new doorbell. |
| Mo | ah |
| Jon | ah |
| Mo | It’s weird, but I guess these days though, you know, doorbell is no longer just a doorbell, right? It’s, you know, so I went I got like a ring doorbell from Amazon, of course, we’re also going to get it. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | ah And let me tell you, it’s, it’s just amazing. I don’t know if this is good or bad because it has a camera. You know, it records videos, you know, puts them on the cloud, all that fun stuff. |
| Mo | And they built like a whole bunch of like neighborhood kind of stuff in it now where you could subscribe and you could see things like if somebody say somebody stealing packages. |
| Mo | Your neighbor could say, hey, in this using the ring app, this guy is stealing packages. |
| George | Oh, so it’s Ring. Okay. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | I was about to ask what platform. |
| Mo | I’m sorry. Yeah, I’m ring that everybody like if you’re in that neighborhood, it’ll let everyone know and you’ll see the video. |
| Jon | really? Oh, really? |
| Mo | You know. |
| Jon | oh really |
| George | Log in now to watch your shit getting taken too. |
| Mo | Exactly. um If you it has some like some interesting like AI stuff, like if ah you could put your dog in it, description, if you lose your dog, the ring cameras in the area, if anyone spot your dog, it’ll notify you. |
| George | Oh, AI Big Brother kind of stuff. |
| Jon | Really? |
| Mo | Yeah, yeah, it’s kind of creepy. |
| Jon | Oh. |
| Mo | ah |
| Jon | Surveillance state. There we go. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | We’re voluntarily installing it. No one came around and forced it. |
| George | So George Orwell got it wrong. It was never going to be the government. It was always going to be corporations that were going to be big brother. |
| Mo | It kind of follows. But the the other thing is like um so. |
| Jon | Yeah, Drex. |
| Mo | But also, like said, anytime anyone comes in front to your door around anything like that, you know it has a thing where you actually from your phone, you could talk to the person, even if you’re not home. If someone reads your doorbell, you actually can see and talk to them. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | ah Has a speaker. You could hear them, you know, and just only speaking. i mean, it works well. The one I like about this one the most, though, is that when you know obviously, it’s a battery because I didn’t have the power. doorbell that I could hook it up to to recharge it. |
| Mo | Like there’s no more like don’t have to take it apart to get to the batteries. It actually has USB-C that if I have like a like through for charging your phone like an external pack thing, I can just plug that in there and it’ll recharge like very quickly. |
| Mo | So i like that’s a little convenience feature that i kind of like. |
| Jon | I’m curious, you so we actually got a ring camera for Christmas that’s still sitting on the table in the box waiting to get something done with it. So i I’m curious about the installation process. And you mentioned that you got the battery one. And I think through a Christmas happenstance slash miracle, I think we got one of each, the powered one and the battery ones. I’m not sure which one they’re going to use. So i wasn’t sure. So I’m curious about the installation experience. |
| Mo | installation was really easy. um You know, basically it’s, you know, it comes with like a plate that you actually connect to wherever you want your camera to be. |
| Jon | Is it? |
| Mo | And then the doorbell camera itself kind of clamps, like snaps into it. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | Like you need a little tool to pop it off after that. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | um You could probably find that tool a million places. If someone wanted to steal it, they probably could. up But it was it was really easy. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | Two screws and that was it. |
| Jon | and Okay. Thanks. |
| George | I’m curious about a couple of things. Number one, what’s the cost on this? Because I know it’s not just the doorbell in Ring’s case. A lot of times there’s a subscription stuff too, possibly, and all of that. |
| George | And I’m not going to ask because I don’t think any of us have used them long enough to have an opinion on whether or not the subscription model versus recording everything to a home server is better or worse. |
| Mo | Just print. Yeah. |
| George | There’s a lot of opinions out there on that. But how much did it cost is my first question. |
| Mo | I got it on sale. It was 79, but now normally it’s 99. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | Oh, that’s not as bad as I was thinking. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | Ring, I always have like 160 in my mind for some reason. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. And this is like their their simplest one, I guess I would call it |
| George | But… |
| George | Okay. But what about the subscription thing? Are you doing that and how much is that? |
| Mo | So you get, obviously they give you three months free, right? Of course. |
| George | Right. |
| Mo | They to kind of suck you in. um But then you, it I think it’s, shoot, you have to look. I think it’s like four bucks a month or something like that for the subscription. |
| George | Okay. So a nuisance subscription. |
| Mo | And it’s, Yeah, exactly. But with that, though, it will keep all the videos that you don’t care about. You know, really, i guess until you need until you care about them, I suppose. |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | yeah |
| Mo | um And it does do things like you can have notifying your phone and it’ll tell it actually popped up notifications. An Amazon driver just delivered a package. I was like. |
| Jon | Oh, like not just somebody, but a guy. |
| Mo | Huh. |
| Jon | So like, so the Ahai’s reading, you know, a shady looking character with a beard just knocked on the door. |
| Mo | Is that identified an an Amazon person? Yeah. Which, again, is kind of creepy. Yeah. |
| George | Well, I mean, they kind of they kind of know they are Amazon, after all. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Oh, yeah, that’s true. |
| Mo | That’s true. |
| George | so like it’s yeah I I’ve got a suspicion that they’re probably, since they’re tied into your account, they know when the guy’s dropping stuff off and everything. |
| Mo | They should recognize their own right people, right? |
| Jon | Right. Yeah. |
| Mo | Especially he sees a truck. |
| Jon | Uh, |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | So again, it said it’s it works well. you know um it It’s loud. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | like Basically, ah it when someone rings the bell, it does make a sound that’s loud enough for you to hear inside. But it also, your phone will beep as well. Say someone rang your doorbell. you know |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Right. |
| Mo | And you can send it to as many phones. like My wife is on her phone as well, so she can hear it on her phone. so you know Again, I like things that just work, and this basically just works. |
| Jon | Well, okay. |
| George | Well, I still got more questions. I hate to do that because I don’t want to extend the segment too long, but I’m very curious. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | Yeah, go for it. |
| Jon | Go. |
| George | So first of all, it’s good to know that you can ah apply it to other phones and whatnot. But do you know if they have any ecosystem ties into anything like their fire sticks or the fire cubes or anything so that you could see the feed on television if you’re sitting in your living room, as an example? |
| Mo | Oh, I don’t know. That’s a good question. You would think they would. That’d |
| George | I was hoping because a lot of times I, yeah, you want to see it pop up. |
| Mo | be handy. You watch TV and that’d be actually kind of cool. Yeah, |
| George | So, you know, it’s cause that’s, if you’re in your living room, nine times out of 10, you’re probably going to be watching the TV, right? |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | yeah it’s true. |
| George | I mean, that’s just kind of this, this world we live in now. But then also I was wondering that battery park, you talked about recharging is the pack, an item that you can separate from the doorbell and put another one in. |
| George | Like, could you buy two of them and swap them out and keep one charged all the time or. |
| Mo | This one, ah you know again, I’m not sure. This one, I believe you have to, I think you like when you need to charge it, you actually take the whole unit off and you can bring it aside and plug it into an outlet to USB-C while it’s charging. |
| George | ah |
| Jon | Mm. |
| George | So you’d lose the doorbell while it’s charging then? |
| Jon | Oh. |
| Mo | And it takes, I think, about an hour to fully charge. |
| George | Oh. |
| Mo | And the the battery itself lasted like over a month. You know, so yeah, overnight, one night or something like that. |
| Jon | It’s like something I bring in overnight one night or something. and Yeah. Yeah. |
| Mo | Or not even that. |
| George | Only a month? |
| Mo | Actually, you just do it the day. |
| George | Huh. |
| Mo | i’ll probably, like I said, it takes like an hour we to recharge, so it’s not bad. |
| Jon | Well, it’s recording video and it’s running a Wi-Fi connection. |
| George | I guess it goes with being the cheap one. |
| Jon | So there’s, it’s power draw. |
| George | I know, I was just hoping like 90 days. |
| Jon | Mm, yeah. Bigger battery might, you |
| George | Yeah, but I mean, because those units are usually not small. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | I was thinking, you know, a battery, you know, you probably fit a 20,000 milliamp hour battery in those things. |
| Mo | yes but Yeah. ya big |
| Jon | I mean, you you could kind of do that, but that’s called wiring it up, right? You could kind of run one from the inside, get a power bank and charge it and have it always ah plugged in. |
| George | Well. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | But yeah then you’re. |
| Mo | And the thing is that right now, if you have like an existing doorbell that rings the door in your house, that’s actually powered. |
| Jon | Yeah, that’s enough power. |
| George | It is. |
| Mo | And that’s enough power that you can put it attached to that and you never have to charge it. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Jon | but So you didn’t have that, you said. |
| George | My problem is, yeah. |
| Mo | I didn’t have that because when I redid the siding my house, they covered it. |
| Jon | oh |
| Mo | I have no idea where it is. |
| Jon | I see. |
| George | Well, mine is, my problem is, is that the doorbell that goes into my house that like you’re talking about, it’s on the side. So the camera would never face toward people. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | It would just face the wall of my neighbor’s house. |
| Mo | They do big give kits where you could mount them at angles. |
| Jon | Ah. They have mounting brackets that will angle it. |
| George | I’ve seen those, but it would stick out then and you’d bump it with your arm all the time. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah, possibly. |
| George | So I’ve got it kind of a narrow walkway there. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | ah Okay. Yeah, it’s possible for sure. |
| George | But anyway, it’s it’s a cool device. |
| Jon | Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, George, the wire is there. |
| George | I’m very interested in it. |
| Jon | You might just be able to reroute it around the corner and put it where it needs to be. I mean, it’d take little, you had to fish for the wire a little bit, but yeah, you have there are options. |
| George | Maybe. |
| Mo | As long as you have Yeah, if you know where it is. |
| George | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | At least could always with the battery if you didn’t, but it’s nice to have it wired and charged. |
| George | Right. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. cool |
| Mo | So so that’s what I got. So ah George, yours, I’m not sure what it is, but i like the name of it. |
| George | Ha ha ha ha! |
| Jon | ah |
| Mo | ah |
| George | Well, ah of late, I have been on a mission to get us as much equipment to review as possible over on the YouTube channel. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. |
| George | And we recently came across a device. Well, I bought it and I’ve talked about it here on the show. And this is the X-Arcade 2TV-XR system. |
| George | Well, |
| George | um well they have a bunch of components that you can enhance the original device with. There’s one that’s um spinners that you can go up and replace the top section with. |
| Mo | Sweet. Right. |
| Mo | we |
| George | There’s this speaker and microphone thing that you can stick on top that if you wanted to have, you know, audio come blasting at you and talk to somebody while you were playing that kind of thing. |
| George | But this one in particular appealed to me and I made sure that I got one over to John as well, which you may end up inheriting at some point, Mo, because John said that he loves them, but he he’s not really a pinball guy or a VR guy like you are. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | So it’s the haptic feedback kit. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Yep. |
| George | Now, anybody who’s into virtual or digital pinball understands that the one thing you lose when you’re playing a digital pinball machine is the feeling and the sounds of the ball rolling around the flippers, the solenoids popping as you you move your flippers or the pop bumpers or the slingshots or any of that. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Yep. |
| Mo | here |
| George | So you just lose all of that physical sensation because you’re in a digital world. Well, ah leave it to the American internet pinball society, I guess, to figure out ways to include those feelings in modern digital systems. |
| George | So if you go buy prebuilt digital pinball machine like that At Games Mini that I got. |
| Mo | right sweet |
| George | They come a lot of times with solenoids in them and the CPU says, oh, when the ball hits this bumper, fire that solenoid kind of thing. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | like right |
| George | Well, that’s what this haptic feedback kit does. It adds solenoids to the device, rumble motors, all that kind of stuff. It adds two 25-watt speakers. |
| Mo | sweet |
| George | The thing that I thought was the neatest part of the entire system, it adds a… ah not a digital, it adds an analog plunger to the side of the cabinet. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | So when you’re playing pinball and you’re used to pulling the plunger back, you now have one. |
| Mo | Oh, really? |
| Mo | Yeah. Oh, that’s pretty cool. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. |
| George | Yeah, it’s very cool. |
| Mo | That is pretty cool. |
| George | And because it’s analog and it’s read through the sensors and everything, like if you pull the plunger back just a little bit on your digital pinball, it just moves just a little bit. That’s all. |
| Mo | That’s nice. |
| George | um I think the biggest fear that some people are going to have is going to come to the installation. |
| Mo | was about to ask about that, actually. |
| George | It involves drill bits. Like, they send you drill bits in the kit. |
| Mo | Really? |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | have feelings about that. |
| George | But… Yeah, I know. |
| Mo | ah |
| George | ah You’re permanently modifying your control deck with this feedback kit. But if it’s something that you want, you’re going to be probably willing to do it. |
| George | And really, their instructions, at least the physical manual that I’ve been looking at so far and reading before I do mine, I think it’s very doable within a couple of hours. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| Jon | I’m looking forward to installing mine. i I’m going to dive into it next week. I haven’t touched it yet, but I’m to start doing the research. So but one thing I wanted to ask you about, you’re you’re talking about this haptic kit includes all those things you talked about, of course, but there’s something else that includes that you didn’t mention that I was really curious how it’s going to work. |
| Mo | What’s that? |
| Jon | And I, anyway, is all these nudge sensors. So I know something that’s also supposed to add is |
| George | Uh-huh. |
| Mo | Oh, can do a tilt on it. |
| George | Yeah. Physical tilt. Not just the button, moving a button, pressing, none of that. |
| Mo | Nice. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | So apparently, i guess these pinball games that you play, the digital ones, they have three nudge points, like a nudge from the right, a nudge from the left, and a shove, like in front, like a space bar would be the shove. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Three directional or up and down. |
| George | Left, right, and forward. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | And I understand it adds some kind of, i don’t know, accelerometers or mercury switches or something to sense all those two. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Is that right? |
| George | Mm-hmm. It does. |
| Jon | Wow. |
| George | So there is a new PCB that comes with this kit as well. |
| Jon | Oh, okay. |
| Mo | Oh, |
| George | And all of that stuff is built into the PCB. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | And then to make it work, because John, you’ve you’ve put your pedestal and your control deck together, you know that thing doesn’t move. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. |
| George | It’s solid as a rock. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Well, they did something really clever. |
| Jon | Not very wobbly. |
| George | You need to, as part of the installation process, take the control deck off of the stand, lay the stand on its back, |
| Jon | Uh-huh. |
| George | unscrew the feet, the levelers that are on there, put on this little mount so that it adds two holes towards the inside of the bracket frame, and then screw the feet to one of those two interior holes so it makes it a little more unstable on purpose. |
| Jon | Yeah. Uh-huh. |
| Jon | Oh, a little wobbly. Just a little. Interesting. |
| George | Right. |
| Mo | Oh, because yeah, because it’s perfectly stable, you can’t. |
| George | And you can choose how much by which hole you put it in. |
| Jon | oh Oh, I see. |
| George | It’s very, very smart. It’s a very intelligent way to do it. |
| Jon | That’s smart. |
| George | The accelerometers on the PCB get the feedback from that motion. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | And then that’s what feeds into the different software that you can use. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | Yeah, sure. |
| Mo | So I know you haven’t installed it yet, but does it look like because we said drilling, I’m like, hmm, when it’s all said and done, does it still look like like it doesn’t look kludgy? |
| George | Mm hmm. |
| George | I don’t think so. No. |
| Mo | OK. |
| George | um I’ve seen plenty of videos. There are a couple of other people who’ve got their haptic feedback kits before we did, and they’ve done some ah they’ve done some of their videos. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | Wagner’s Tech Talks, one of the John’s buddies, he did one that was a very thorough and well put together video on how to go through every single step in the manual. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | When he got done with it, I was looking, I was like, no It looks still really, really good, and I think that’s because the people who made this device are the ones making the kit. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| George | Now, oftentimes, you know, in the world, you’ll get somebody else makes the kit because the original company didn’t do the thing, but that’s not the case here, and they took painstaking… |
| Mo | Sure. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah. Oh, yeah. |
| George | details and time to make sure that the process was as easy as it could be to do this, but also solid and fit every component that they put into the system. |
| Mo | who |
| Jon | Good. |
| George | Like even so much as that PCB, there’s two little holes on a bar in the cabinet already, and they made the PCB with specific plastic snaps to fit in those two holes. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | Just really smart engineering, I think, on their part. |
| Jon | Yeah. Smart. That’s smart. |
| Mo | Nice. |
| George | So it’s a good solid system. I can’t wait to see what John does with it. I’m going to try and play with mine this weekend, possibly. But if you’re into virtual pinball, digital pinball, I think it’s, again, a no brainer for this system. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | So, but John, I know you have something you want to talk about. |
| Jon | Yes. |
| George | You’ve shown me pictures. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| George | I’ve been jealous. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | I’ve seen I’ve seen pictures too. |
| George | And I know that Mo was the one who got you this thing for Christmas. |
| Jon | Yeah, I haven’t forgiven him yet. |
| George | And for some reason, i don’t rate high enough up on the friend ladder yet to warrant this gift, but I can’t wait to hear what you’re going to tell about it. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | hang in there. You’ll get there. You’ll get there one day. |
| George | Maybe. We’ll see. |
| Jon | Yeah, so I talked about this back when we were talking about our Geek Gift Guide for the end of 2025 for the holiday season. It was on my list of things that cost more than $100, more than $250. This is the Lego Star Trek Enterprise, NCC-1701D. |
| Jon | And I think I even said in that, Mo has has claimed ignorance. I even said there… It’s so beautiful. I hope no one spends the money on it for me because it just it it’s $400 for this thing. It’s enormous. When it’s finished, it’s almost two foot. |
| Jon | From tip to tip, it’s… So, first of all, once again, Mo, I’ll thank you and your lovely wife for the generous gift that I… You should not have gotten. It was too much money to give as a gift, and I’m very grateful for it. But I want to talk about, for those who maybe do have the money and interest, and maybe they have overly generous friends like Mo in their lives, I was tickled to death to get this thing. A few days after Christmas, we met for lunch, and he’s like, look at this thing. And i’m like, wow, holy crap. |
| Jon | So, i First of all, it’s been a while since I put together, god i don’t know, maybe years since I put together a really big Lego kit. if I put little ones, you know, the things that are $30, $40, $50, $80 maybe, top of the mark. |
| Mo | geez. |
| Jon | But this is this is a big… 30 different little bags in there, two giant books of how to assemble it. |
| Mo | geez |
| Jon | You know, the like the basically the the drive warp drive, the drive section and then the the saucer, like two full books of how to how to build. And a couple of things I noticed, and maybe you guys have picked up on this in the kits. I know you just talked about the the Game Boy last time we talked, George, we’ve run across this, but you can feel I’ve got knockoff Lego e-kits, right? |
| Jon | That are fine and they have decent instructions. |
| Mo | ah yeah |
| Jon | And I didn’t even use the digital. I just use the printed manual instructions. It’s very clear how Lego designers and master builders choose what bricks to use, like choosing whether or not to use a single one by one or a single one by two or two one by ones. |
| Jon | Like there’s a reason they do those things. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | And in the interior of like parts you never see later, they’ll put in crazy colors. Because the Enterprise is basically gray, duck egg blue, and some, you know, some glowy parts. |
| Jon | But in in the interior, there’ll be like bright yellow bricks and bright red bricks. Like, why is that in there? And then you find out when you’re building it, oh, it’s to make the build so easy to understand. |
| Jon | Because step one, you put in a red brick and it’s confusing. |
| George | Yep. |
| Jon | Eight steps later, when you’re putting pieces together, you’re like, oh, look, this should just cover the red brick and leave one stud showing. |
| Mo | Oh, it’s like a reference. |
| Jon | You’re like it is, it’s a reference. |
| Mo | Oh, |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | It’s like a it’s like putting ah a chalk mark on the thing going, here’s the part you’re going to need to connect later. |
| Mo | that’s smart. |
| Jon | So we’re going make it a crazy color. So you’re like, oh, click this into the yellow clamp and this into the blue clamps. They could all be the same color. |
| Mo | Because when it’s all said and done, you don’t see it. |
| Jon | You don’t see it, right? |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | It’s incredibly smart. And I’m blown. |
| Mo | That’s very smart. |
| Jon | It’s one thing to design the amazing shapes and contours of the enterprise, which is has almost no straight edges in the first place in your building with Lego. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | But on top of that, to to design it in such a way that it eliminates the friction from the building. I remember even in Lego used to be, all right, i put this brick on here. let me count studs. It’s one, two, three, four, five, six from here. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. Spot. |
| Jon | No, now you do put it next to the pink one. Oh, you’re done. It’s pretty easy. Also, the minifigures are cute as hell. So the set of minifigures, each of them has an accessory. |
| Jon | Like they have Guinan and she has a bottle of green. They have you know Data. He’s got his pet cat spot. |
| Mo | but |
| George | Nice. |
| Jon | Riker has a trombone that you build. It’s a little buildable trombone. |
| George | Oh, that’s funny. |
| Jon | It’s not a single piece. It’s like five pieces of the trombone. um Wesley has, there’s one episode with the traveler where he built this portable anti-gravity machine. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | He’s got that. Just random things that they picked. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Just, it shows people that know the show well enough to go, oh, that would be a cute accessory. Picard’s got Earl Grey tea, of course, you know, things like that. um And the last thing I want to talk about with this is a delightful build. I’m done with it. I’ve not yet decided whether i want to retrofit and put lights on it. Maybe that’s a possibility. |
| Jon | But for the first time in God knows how long. I was missing a piece in my Lego set. |
| Mo | What? Seriously? |
| Jon | If I’m missing a piece in Lego, I’m quick to blame me because they have a rabid reputation of getting everything right with a couple of extra of the tiniest pieces to make sure. |
| George | Right. |
| Mo | Yeah, exactly. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| George | he |
| Jon | Because I know they weigh them on a micro scale and everything. You know, how many atoms is this brick? They know everything, you know. And and the the process of getting the missing piece was like falling backwards off a slippery rock. |
| Jon | You go, I’m missing a piece. What’s the set? Look in the back of the book. Tell me the number of the piece. What’s your address? See you tomorrow. Not tomorrow. it takes a couple of weeks to get there, but they’re just, they don’t ask any questions. They don’t argue with you. You’re like no problem. Our bad. They don’t care if you dropped on the rug and lost it. You dog ate it. They don’t care. They’re going to send you the piece that you need. |
| Jon | So even if they mess it up, The experience is spectacular. So it was ah an amazing build. |
| Mo | Oh, that’s cool. |
| Jon | And I um so almost wanted, if someone else needed one built, I’d build it for them. I enjoyed the process so much. |
| Mo | So I was going to ask you a question because one, you know, you sent pictures as you were building it. And I’m like, this thing is freaking huge. |
| Jon | It is. |
| Mo | I mean, it is just mammoth. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | um And you said that it was a fun build. Like it wasn’t stressful. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | It was just like a. |
| Jon | No. |
| Mo | So this is the first of the Star Trek, first ever Star Trek model, right? |
| Jon | That’s right. |
| Mo | Do you know what, if they have plans for any future ones, because I’m thinking like a bird of prey would be pretty awesome. |
| George | In Lego. |
| Jon | They’ve not announced anything. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | i know. Well, you know, sometimes they use this icons line to just do something. They did the Atari 2600. but they didn’t do any other Atari things or any more cartridges or anything. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | They just did it. I’m hoping this is like, I would love for you to go, I can’t even find Star Wars anymore. All the Star Trek Lego is in the way. I would love there to be all kinds of crazy sets because you could do the same thing with that franchise. |
| Jon | i don’t know if they have that kind of agreement, but I’ve not heard of any and it plans. Yeah, it’s unfortunate. I know. Mo’s crying. You can’t see he’s crying. is very sad. |
| George | ah |
| Mo | I’m sure i mean they have plenty of stars Star Wars now, so they could definitely do more Star Trek. |
| Jon | It’s enough, right? what So what what Star Trek set would you like to see, Mo? |
| Mo | Oh, seriously, a bird of prey. |
| Jon | The Bird of Prey? Clingon Bird of Prey? A Vorchok class? |
| Mo | Yeah, yeah. |
| Jon | Voyager? |
| Mo | I always thought those just looked awesome. |
| Jon | Defiant? Original Enterprise? |
| Mo | Regional Enterprise. |
| Jon | di Titan? |
| George | Eh. |
| Jon | Deep Space Nine? Pick it! What do you want to see? |
| Mo | The Deep Space Nine one was pretty cool, too, actually. |
| Jon | there Yeah, that’d be crazy. |
| George | Eh. |
| Jon | so |
| George | Theirs are okay, but they’re not the they’re not the one I would buy. |
| Mo | Which one you buy? |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | Pac-Lid Chip. |
| Mo | Okay, I walked into that one. |
| Jon | ah We look for things to build. Yeah, they do. |
| George | That’s right. There |
| Jon | I’m good. Well, that’s thats just the joke just for Star Trek fans. Everybody else is not invited. |
| George | ah you go. |
| Mo | It was like, what? |
| Jon | What are talking about? Talking about |
| George | All right, gentlemen, time to get into games. I want to get to what John is talking about, so going to let Mo go first, and then I’m just going to mention mine, and we’ll move on to John’s at the end. |
| Jon | Oh, wow. |
| George | But Mo, what have you been playing since we last talked? |
| Jon | All right. |
| Mo | So I’m playing a game called Dust Land Delivery. You buy it on Steam. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Mo | Eight bucks. You know, cheap game. |
| Jon | All right. |
| George | Okay. Okay. |
| Mo | And it’s definitely a throwback Low res game where basically it’s there’s apocalypse, but you’re a truck driver and you’re moving goods from one town to the other. Essentially, that’s your that’s the whole thing. |
| Jon | All right. okay |
| Mo | But there’s a whole bunch of like you got to know like, OK, this town needs this and they make this cheap and they make this expensive and it’s scarce there. like That whole resource economy pieces on it. |
| Jon | OK. Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Plus, there’s like all these little stories. So as you’re playing it, like one, if you go for your truck from point A to point B, it’s not a, like you just appear. Like you have to have enough, like your drivers get tired. You have to stop and rest. |
| Mo | If you stop and rest in a dangerous spot, you’re going to get attacked and you have to you know defend yourself. You can have crew on your truck as well. So you keep expanding, expanding it. You could modify your truck to haul more stuff, to go faster, to use less fuel, you know, all these little, little tiny managing things that they |
| Jon | Sure. |
| Mo | really got that line really good between micromanaging is a point of annoyance and managing. So it’s still fun. They they definitely like did that well, you know, but then they said, there’s all these like stories involved. |
| Jon | That could be delicate. Yeah. |
| George | you |
| Mo | Like you’ll step up at one place and guys like, I, you know, I need my artwork sent to this town, you know this many days, can you do it? And you go there there’s this little pop-up box where the guys say, you’re having a dialogue with the person. |
| Mo | Yeah. um You can buy equipment. you know Again, it’s like it’s like definitely a resource traveling, don’t what to call it, kind of game. All side-scrolling kind of graphics. Very low-res-y kind of graphics, too. |
| Mo | But damn if it isn’t fun. It’s one of these things you play it for a little bit, and sudden you’re like, oh, I’ve been playing this for an hour. You’re just like, oh, crap. i you know You don’t realize it’s just because you’re kind of just into the game and just having fun. |
| Jon | you know what this reminds me of, Mo? I’m willing to bet you played this. There’s an old computer game from the 80s called Privateer. |
| Mo | Yes. Yeah. |
| Jon | Your description reminds me of privateer because you get a ship and you improve your ship and how much cargo and they want to take things to different planets. |
| Mo | It. |
| Mo | Mm hmm. |
| Jon | Is it, does it feel like that at all? |
| Mo | it’s It’s that’s it. Oh, it’s absolutely that. |
| Jon | Is it? |
| Mo | Absolutely that. |
| Jon | e |
| Mo | Because I said, I said, I played a game like this. |
| Jon | That’s awesome. |
| Mo | I couldn’t remember the name. So you said private here. I’m like, oh, crap. That’s the one. |
| Jon | That’s the one. Yep. |
| Mo | They just put it into a truck instead of a ship. And instead of going to star systems, you’re going to towns. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Jon | Neat. Okay. |
| Mo | And I privateer, I played the heck out of that game too. |
| Jon | Okay, I figured you, because it’s like Elite. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | It’s in that line of kind of outer spacey. |
| Mo | yeah Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah, okay. I figured as much. |
| Mo | So it’s definitely worth getting it. And it’s eight bucks. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | you know, it’s, you probably get on sale cheaper somewhere. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | So if you’re looking for just a good, just kind of game, you could play for a while, drop, come back to, you know, the kind of thing I think is a well worth the money. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | So, so that’s what I got. |
| Jon | Got it. |
| Mo | So George, you say you have something quick to talk about. |
| George | Yeah, I just want to get this piece of crap out of the way as quickly as I can. |
| Jon | Oh my goodness. |
| George | um |
| Mo | Oh, okay. |
| George | So ah first off, I was going to choose a different game that was essentially if somebody took the Sims and threw a Minecraft skin on top of the Sims and then told you you were going to run a drug empire. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | I was going to talk about that game, but that sucked even worse than this. |
| Jon | No. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| George | So I’m not even going to talk about that. |
| Mo | Oh, man. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | Um, so the game I decided to talk about was Hogwarts Legacy. |
| Jon | ah damn |
| Mo | It’s been out for a while. |
| George | This game is a AAA title from a couple of years back that was supposed to be, you know, the great game of the Hogwarts franchise. |
| Mo | Yeah. Mm-hmm. |
| George | Um, but I got it. I waited and waited because, you know, I’ve tons of games that I haven’t even installed, let alone played my Steam library and whatnot. |
| Mo | Sure. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. |
| George | I waited and it it turned out it was free on Epic like a couple of months ago or something like that in that free Thursday giveaway that they do all the time. So I got it. And I said, well, I didn’t like the the Minecraft Sims drug game, so let me try this instead. i installed it. It took a while to install, as you might expect, a big AAA game. um And then I loaded it, and I spent 20 minutes going through character design. |
| Mo | Really? |
| Jon | What? but Because you wanted to or you had to? |
| Mo | Yeah, that’s what I was wondering. |
| George | No, because I kind of had to, um and it was not intuitive as a character design at all. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | None of the sliders, like, you know, choose your eye color or anything, none ah they were just these long sliders with little dots on them, and not a single one had a label. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| George | So to find that you want blue eyes or gray hair or anything, you literally just had to go through like 20 choices, clicks, and it wasn’t a… |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | Oh. |
| George | anyway Very, very irritating. I thought back as I was doing it to the days when I created a character for Mass Effect. The Mass Effect character creation was intuitive. |
| Jon | Mm. Mm. |
| George | It was straightforward. It took maybe five or ten minutes on an Xbox. I’m sitting here in front of a PC. It should be even easier. |
| Mo | Yeah, you think? |
| George | Yeah. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. Uh-uh. |
| George | So it just, I don’t know, it just kind of smacked me in the face with how bad some of these designs can be and how much it can affect the game before you even start playing the damn game. |
| Jon | You just made me think of our buddy MC Murr with the character creator. And he has a nickname. He he says a game has a my off function. My off. Have you heard that? |
| George | Okay. No. |
| Jon | It’s a, he says it stands for make your own fucker. |
| George | Make your |
| Jon | ah |
| George | Yeah. Yeah. Uh, that’s probably appropriate in this case. |
| Jon | but So you got past making a guy. |
| George | So I, I kind of did. |
| Jon | What was the game like? youve Okay. |
| George | And, um and then I got to the game. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | Well, the next 10 minutes was all cut scene. |
| Jon | No. |
| Jon | Really? |
| George | So I was 30 minutes in before I got to move. |
| George | I just put it down and said to hell with this. |
| Jon | really |
| George | I’m not, and I haven’t gone back to it yet. Cause like I said, I’ve, I’ve started at beginning the week with the one game that didn’t pan out and I didn’t want to bring that game to the podcast. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | So then I like around Wednesday or Thursday, I said, well, let me, let me take a look at this one. And I’m like, now it’s, it is pretty looking by three years ago standards. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. |
| George | It’s not mind blowing. It’s not cyberpunk 2077 anything like that. Um, Maybe it’ll be an interesting game. Maybe not. |
| George | Just for the premise, for those who care, you start out going to Hogwarts as a fifth-year student, not a first-year, which is the unusual hook of your character. I don’t even know why that is a thing yet. |
| George | All I know is that I’m coming in as a fifth-year. |
| Mo | I mean, that cut scene. |
| George | You get attacked in the in the initial cutscene, and there’s this key that thiss your mentor’s wife sent to him that turns out to be a portkey, and… but That’s as far as I know at this point. |
| George | it |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | I don’t know. Maybe it’ll be worth it. Maybe I’ll get turned around. But as of right now, I’d just rather talk about John’s game. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| Jon | Well, at least you got it free. So there’s something. |
| Mo | That’s true. You have to pay for it. |
| George | I did get it for free. |
| Jon | ah |
| George | Yeah, I feel like I should charge them. But yeah, let’s move on. |
| Jon | For your time. Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Well, you’re you’re right to be looking forward to my game ah because you can start playing it in about 10 seconds. Okay. |
| George | Nice. |
| Jon | There’s no my off function. There’s no character creator. |
| Mo | Yeah. Hurts brain. |
| Jon | There’s no cut scene. There’s no lore. There’s no story. It is straight up first person environmental puzzles. And it’s one of those that it makes you feel smart when you figure stuff out. |
| Mo | oh |
| Jon | So, |
| Mo | hers your brain |
| Jon | Kind of, oh, it hurts your brain, Sesmo. So in the vein of like puzzly mind bending, we talked about viewfinder, we’ve talked about portal in the past, those kind of environmental puzzle games. This is a game called Chromatic Conundrum. |
| Jon | Now, i actually streamed this game as a demo back in June or July of 2025. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | And I was following the creator, the developer named Diggs. And I saw in social, he says, hey, my new game is coming out. Well, I was quick to write to him and said, I want to play your game now that it’s done. I want to see it. He’s like, absolutely. He sent some keys for us to play. And I sent you guys keys so we could talk about it here on the show. I had some to give away to some of the viewers in our live stream. I’ll give Mo a link and ask him if he would please put the link to the live stream. in the show notes of this show if you want to go see the play. |
| Jon | The premise is it’s almost a a line art world that’s black and white. You’re in a black void and the walls are drawn in white. It’s kind of almost like ah like a ray traced environment. |
| Jon | Everything is handled with light, with colors of light. So there might be a switch on the wall that’s purple. |
| Mo | you |
| Jon | And so I need to pick up these boxes that will cast a blue and then red light to combine, red and blue make purple. That is a trigger that opens some door or an elevator or a switch or something. |
| Jon | And then you walk through And then there’s progressively more advanced levels where, well, now you need to, some lights you need to shine on and not shine on ones near them. |
| Jon | So you put boxes to cast shadows to keep a light from shining on a certain key, or sometimes there are environmental puzzles where I have to, there was one where I had to stack all the lights and trigger an elevator to to make the things fall in a certain place. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | It is, as Mo said, it does hurt your head. But also, as I said, when you figure something out, you’re like okay, I’m going to reverse engineer this. This one needs the green light. There’s only one green light. Let’s put that here first and start working your way through it. You’re like, oh, I’m a genius. I got it. The whole thing worked. And I played it on the live stream, but we had a great time with it. I sent a copy to you guys, and I don’t know if you had a chance to play it yet. I’m curious about your impressions, or maybe you saw the live. |
| Mo | yeah well um I played the demo way back when, and I enjoyed it. |
| Jon | Okay. Oh, you did. All right. |
| Mo | It’s kind of portal-y, guess you would call it, you know because there’s rooms and each one’s different. |
| Jon | Sure. |
| Mo | um it It was… Definitely a lot of fun to play because, again, like instead of, you know, in Portal where, you know, you’re moving weights and stuff like that and to get things to happen, you it’s light, you know. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | um But, yeah, it it definitely is one of those that, you know, when you figure it out, you feel kind of stupid sometimes, too, because you’re like, oh, that’s so obvious. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | You know, like, oh, why didn’t I do that first or why didn’t I do it? But it was a very well-constructed game. I thought the puzzles were very well thought out. You know, no, no, like, you know, weird. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | You got to do these weird connuptions in order to make it happen. |
| Jon | And you know, there are, sorry, go ahead, George. |
| George | Okay. |
| George | I’m just curious because I know this is essentially a logic puzzler game, right? |
| Mo | hmm. Mm |
| George | And there’s all kinds of those, you know, both on mobile and on PC. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. |
| George | I’m just wondering, is this set up in a way that you can play a level or two, leave and then come back? |
| Mo | hmm. |
| George | Because that’s very important to me with the time that I am finding I have less and less of to play a game. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. That’s a great question. And I’m happy to tell you 1000%. Not only can you get into the game in about five seconds and get started, you can finish a room and go, fine, see you later and be done. |
| Jon | You a typical room, depending on the complexity of the puzzle is five minutes, 10 minutes, maybe depending, you know, as they go on a little more progressively difficult. but I was almost wondering whether or not from the demo to the final, whether or not they were going to add in like portal mode, like some kind of a story. |
| Jon | Why am I here? Why are the lights, the keys, why are they don’t bother with that? |
| Mo | Oh. |
| Jon | This, the game is the game. And so the great thing about that is if you put it down and come back in a week, you don’t have to go, all right, now who was that guy? And what was my quest? so Nope. |
| Jon | Your goal is to get the right light on the right thing. |
| George | oh |
| Jon | And then later they start, I’ve seen later levels in the game that I didn’t stream where sometimes you The thing you have to trigger, you can pick up and move around. Like the the lock itself, where the lights are the keys, locks you can move around so you can put them in the in the path of light rather than moving the light. |
| Mo | Okay. Sweet. |
| Jon | A lot of variety and very smart design. In some cases, you build circuits with light. Like if this one triggers and it makes the other one trigger and that comes off, you know the really interesting stuff that, smart level design, that’s what made this game good. The concept was good. I was curious, could you deliver on it? And now I’m seeing the smart level design means they did so. |
| Jon | I definitely recommend playing it. Definitely recommend checking it out. Look at the live stream if you’re not sure. Take a flavor of it. You can know right away if it isn’t for you. And I think the full price is maybe $8, $10, $12. It’s not much. It’s not a AAA title. Really easy to get into and inexpensive. |
| Jon | Chromatic Conundrum. |
| Mo | Very cool. |
| Jon | All right. |
| Jon | As we wound. Wound? Three, two, as we wind out the back end of the show, you know, we always like to take just a couple of minutes here between. God damn it. How do I do this again? One more time. Three, two, as we come into the back end of the show, you know, this is the part where we always take just a few minutes to talk about what we’re looking at now or looking forward to between now and the next time we get a chance to get together. And going to start with you. What do you have on the horizon? |
| George | ah First up, out on February the 13th is the new Sam Rockwell film. Good luck, have fun, don’t die. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | Oh, I heard this one. |
| George | I just love Sam Rockwell. I was a little disappointed in that Leonardo DiCaprio movie that came out, Paul Thomas Anderson, at the end of the year last year. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | I know it got nominated for a bunch of awards, but I just didn’t enjoy it that much. |
| Mo | Yeah, tons. |
| George | But this looks to be right up my alley, so I’m very much looking forward to that. Then season four of the Lincoln lawyer, which has become one of my favorite streaming series. It’s on Netflix and it comes out February the 5th. So I believe that’s the day that this episode will first release. So if you are hearing this on release day, you might want to go over and check out Netflix. If you have a subscription and, |
| George | go catch up on seasons one through three. If you’re interested in good crime, mystery, police procedural kind of dramas, the Lincoln lawyer is really good. Um, I enjoyed it set in that same universe that Bosch also is set in. |
| Jon | Okay. Yeah. |
| George | So it’s the same writer, same, the characters have actually, uh, met each other in that universe. So very good, uh, uh, of stories. |
| Jon | Neat. |
| George | But then i think the thing that I’m most looking forward to, and it’s going to come off as a little selfish, but you guys know I don’t give a shit about that. um I want to see what the reception is to my first long form YouTube video in years. |
| George | Now, by the time this episode drops, that video will have already released. So I’ll probably already be upset and crying by the time you guys are listening to this. |
| Jon | ah |
| George | But ah it’s been a long road and John and Mo were kind enough to allow me to bring on an editor because John is just super, super busy and I am not nearly as good at editing as I would need to be to do a video like this. |
| George | So we brought on an editor and she took my garbage and turned it into something that I thought was pretty good. But now let’s see what everybody else thinks. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yep. |
| Mo | Very cool. |
| George | What about you, John? |
| Jon | ah So I’m looking forward to a ah movie that I know nothing about. so know a little bit about It’s called Iron Lung. Hits theaters January 30th, which is actually the day we’re recording this. I’m going to see it this weekend. know There’s a YouTube gamer called Markiplier. know if you’ve heard of him before, you know who he is. He had blue hair for a while. Very popular. Multi-millions of subscribers. But he… |
| Jon | Apparently there’s a game called Iron Long that he super enjoyed. So he worked with the guy who wrote it, got the rights. He financed this film. He wrote this film. He directed this film and he’s in this film about this video game. |
| Mo | Geez. |
| George | Oh, yeah. That’s got a lot of chances to be good. |
| Jon | And yet I’m hearing it’s not bad. |
| Mo | You know, I’m like, mmm. |
| Jon | Surprisingly. ah It’s something to do with some something happens and some event happens and all of the planets and stars disappear. You can’t see them and ah nobody knows. And there’s a planet filled with blood. i have no idea. |
| Jon | I told you, it’s crazy. I’ve no, my daughter is the one that told me about it because she used to follow Markiplier. She’s interested in this movie. Going to see it with her and her friends. We’re going check it out. I’ll let you know. So, |
| Mo | Okay. |
| Jon | Also looking forward to good luck, have fun, don’t die, as was on your list. Most looking forward to, ah for the first time ever, headed up this this a couple weeks to the New York Toy Fair, February 16th and 17th. George and I are going to be in Manhattan at the Javits Center, right downtown, ah visiting with our friends at Fizz Creations, who was kind enough to help us get out there, taking a look at all the cool stuff they have, but not them, not just them. |
| Jon | But anybody else I can find something cool the Toy Fair, i’m gonna be sharing it on our YouTube channel. So I’ve never been, it’s a private event. You can’t just get a ticket and go in. We’re there thanks to the folks at Fizz. So I’m eager to see what cool stuff we’re going to spot at the Toy Fair. So very excited to finally get to go to that for the first time ever in my life. |
| Jon | Mo, how about you? What do you got coming up? |
| Mo | Yeah, it was actually a kind of a dry spell as far as new media, as far as new movies and such. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | But there is one movie I’m definitely looking forward to, which is the Dracula, which is coming out February 6th. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | Luc Besson. |
| Jon | Oh, Christoph Waltz, right? |
| Mo | yeah he yeah Once I saw that, it had Waltz in it. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | like, okay, I got to see his movie. i love that guy. |
| George | Yeah, right. |
| Mo | Luc Besson is the director. He did things like The Professional and ah The Fifth Element and a whole bunch of other movies. |
| Jon | Fifth Element. Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | so you is It’s another take on Dracula. No duh. |
| Jon | Yeah. Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | It sounds like it’s going to be like a very classic take, though, also. It’s going to be the original story. so know It’s worth a shot, right? |
| Jon | Isn’t it weird, Mo, that Christoph Waltz was just in Frankenstein and now he’s in Dracula? |
| Mo | I |
| Mo | and know he’s in this. |
| Jon | Like, is he going to be in The Mummy and Wolfman? |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | mean, this is his thing now? |
| Mo | yeah ah And the really, the thing I’m most looking forward to is the third season of the series Shrinking, which has already come out. it came out ah January 28th, but I have not watched it yet because want to wait until I actually have time to sit down and watch it and not be distracted. |
| George | oh |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Mo | But I love that show. i think Harrison Ford just won, I think, a Golden Globe or something for best supporting on it. He does amazing. um Michael J. Fox is in it as well this season. |
| Mo | So, you know, |
| Jon | Oh, they’re adding him. |
| George | oh |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | Yep, definitely going to be. Yeah, because the main character is Parkinson’s. And so I think he’s coming on as like, you know, somebody be with Parkinson’s. So we’re really looking forward to that. |
| Jon | Right. Sure. |
| George | Right. |
| Mo | So that’s what I’m most looking forward to. |
| Jon | Nice. Okay. All right. Well, that’s going to just about wrap up the show. Before we leave, it’s kind of ah a moment of the show where like to take just a second to thank someone who’s decided to start supporting us over on Patreon. You know, we have Patreon and have for years, and we have an army of generous folks who’ve stayed with us. But We need growth. |
| Jon | And when we have new members, that’s growth. That’s new folks who hear what we do, watch what we do, read what we do, see that we give it away for free and yet want to support us so we can continue to do it. |
| Jon | And I want to thank RF Waves, who, since we last spoke, headed over to patreon.com slash Gen X Grown Up, set up a small recurring financial pledge to support what we do. |
| Mo | Thank |
| Jon | just because they want to encourage this kind of content. And RF Waves, thank you so much for your generosity. You are joining an amazing group of folks, and we’re so happy and grateful that you decided to make that step and help us out with that. |
| Jon | ah That’s good business wrapped up. It’s time to jump out of this show. Before we do, don’t worry. We will be back in a couple of weeks with another one. And next week though, is our backtrack. We pick a single nostalgic topic and dig in deep. George, I know you’re chomping at the bit to share with the fourth listeners what’s coming their way. |
| George | Absolutely. Four books, five films, two TV series, and one hell of a meal plan involving Keontae and fava beans. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| George | Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for us to discuss the great movie, Silence of the Lambs, Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster. It is going to be an incredible ride. |
| George | have done a ton of research. The guys are going to chime in and keep me honest because I really, really enjoyed that movie. The franchise has got some hits and misses, but it’s still one of the best horror films to come out of that era. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yep. You do not want to miss, do not want to miss that one. That’s going to be good. I am. have high confidence until then. i am John George. Thank you so much for being here, man. |
| George | Yes, sir. |
| Jon | Mo, you appreciate you. |
| Mo | Always fun, man. |
| Jon | Fourth listener. It’s you. We all appreciate most of all, though. We can’t wait to talk to you again next time. Bye-bye. |
| George | See you guys. |
| Mo | Take care, everybody. |
(Visited 8 times, 8 visits today)
About The Author
