Episode Transcription

Made by robots, for robots. Only read if you're weird.

Unknown Speaker Hey man, Unknown Speaker what's going on? Unknown Speaker Have you ever heard of area 51? Shot? Don't do Unknown Speaker this to me. I don't want to do it's what I had prepared. No, it's not. No, it's not. Unknown Speaker Oh, thank goodness you ever Unknown Speaker heard of Steve glue? Unknown Speaker Yeah, it's gotta be worse. I feel like Speaker 1 if I ever should do one of those tic tock videos where you hold up two options, and I get to choose one but they're both bad or both aliens is Steve blue aliens. All right, roll. Unknown Speaker Oh, yeah, this company is for the whole world. Unknown Speaker We'd like to have our own. Unknown Speaker Can I open for you please let me get into that. But Speaker 1 ladies and gentlemen, Tim stone. She spent her whole life working on that project. Did you like that? Your ruin homeward bound. Things I Learned last night Unknown Speaker who's Steve glue? Okay, so Speaker 2 Steve glue was a dude in Utah. His dad Unknown Speaker made armor. Okay, Steve glue did what Unknown Speaker Steve glue was a man in the 90s who had a passion. He was a collector of of candy dispensers known as Pez. Speaker 1 Okay, that is weird is that? Well, it's still weird. I was wondering. I thought I was gonna be Yeah. Are these the Seven Dwarfs? What is this? Unknown Speaker These are the four horsemen of the apocalypse. This Unknown Speaker is Santa apocalypse. Unknown Speaker Yeah, I don't know what this series is. This Speaker 2 is just a random collection of Pez products. They all stay the same. I didn't. Unknown Speaker They're not all the same. Speaker 3 There's two that are very distinctly I mean, they're different, but they're the same. You know, it's Speaker 2 all bearded dudes with hats. Okay. They're just different color beards and color faces. And this guy is a Pez collector. Yeah, he's a Pez collector. But here's the deal. This candy, Unknown Speaker not great. It's chalk. I mean, it's not you know, it's not chalk. It's candy. Unknown Speaker Are you serious? Unknown Speaker But it's not like, chalk. Speaker 2 I mean, I used to cut up chalk and shape it and say, You're an Speaker 1 idiot for that, right? Okay, so he's a Pez collector. Unknown Speaker I used to just stick whole sticks of chalk in there. Unknown Speaker He's a Pez head. Speaker 2 I thought it was the PES cut the chalk into the shape. And so you put the whole stick in and then you you got the shape. Speaker 1 Okay. You read in shock as a kid. That's what you're saying? Because we all were honestly explains a lot. We all word. Yeah, so he collects Pez dispensers. How many has he got? Unknown Speaker Oh, he's got lots. Speaker 2 He's got lots of Pez dispensers. That's not really an interesting thing about his life, though. That's just Unknown Speaker a side thing. One night, Speaker 1 one night, aliens I swear, I swear if you say something like that, if you lead me on where the past collection, and then you go one night, late in the three in the morning, a bright light shines into his bedroom, shine it upon the Pez collectors. They all begin to tremble and shake. As a flying saucer overtakes his home. What are you talking about? Speaker 2 So he was a Pez collector. And he was from DeWitt, Michigan. And here's something we need to know right off the bat about Pez. Their corporate structure is a little strange. Okay, there's two past companies. There's How old is PES? PES is old Pez as we know it. 1949, something like that. Okay, before that it was actually an anti smoking tool. And so it was like, it was like Nicorette gum, like was the concept. But they realized, Oh, hey, it's a little like, people are opening up this tin, and they're picking it up and putting in their mouth. That's too much work, make it fun. And so they had a German designer designed this dispenser that could give you one at a time, like really quickly. And they thought, oh, this cigarette smokers are gonna love this. But then kids loved it. And they're like, well, we can't Speaker 1 wait. We got to get the kids smoking first. And then give them and that feels like bad messaging, you know, so they turn away. Hey, yeah, you tried to get into smoking. Unknown Speaker So they turned it into candy and started marketing. I'd carry Unknown Speaker you there's a different kind of dairy for you. Unknown Speaker And then we've got a program for high school here, you Speaker 2 know, yeah, they were like, Oh, this whole market really well as candy. We put some characters on it. It'll sell well. All and so that's kind of how Pez got started. Okay, but it still works for smoking if you eat it that way, because it just chalk kills you. So I quit. Just as Speaker 4 I used to carry around cartons of cigarettes, but it was just full of chalk. Just a little chalk stick. That's Unknown Speaker also what the fake cigarettes are. Speaker 2 Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right. And then you puff them. That's right. That's what I was eating. I was like, I Speaker 4 used cigarettes to guys. That's the crunchy cigarette I've ever seen someone hate Oh, sick, never seen someone bite into a cigarette butt. That was the crunchiest cigarette I've ever seen several Biden. Unknown Speaker Yeah. Don't try to light it. It does not. Unknown Speaker It doesn't burn. Yeah. Unknown Speaker So Speaker 2 is the corporate structure. Okay. Yes. Was there was Pez International, which was the parent company, and that Unknown Speaker operates. Who's the Pez daddy, who's that operator who's the wise Papa who's in charge? Worldwide, right, hesitant. Speaker 2 But America had their own America had pas America, because, you know, we're American Corp. That's how we are. We were like, oh, yeah, this Unknown Speaker is a couple of years for the whole world. Speaker 2 We'd like to have our own. Yeah. So there's PES America. And the way things functioned was I hate so much that you caught this. But the President and CEO of PES in the 90s called himself the president. Yeah, he did. His name. You got it. His name was Scott. McWeeny. That's not a joy, joy. Joy. This is him. Scott McWeeny. They Unknown Speaker are so serious about this, too. Unknown Speaker Oh, he was passionate about it. Here's an earlier photo of Scott McWeeny. I think this is Speaker 1 yeah, that's the other go back to the other picture. This head look at the toll that the stress of this job is tennis is a tough job. Go back to the earlier picture. And this is when he first hesitant that this is President right? Yeah. And this is this is a term pessimistic. I'm saying like he he aged quite a bit here. Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did. But also didn't if that makes sense. Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty accurate. Okay, so president and he Speaker 1 I do like that I call that I hate that so much. He they call all their frontline workers peasants. So it's, it's not as endearing as they thought it was gonna be. Unknown Speaker I thought it'd be a cute fun thing. Peasants retentions. Terrible. Unknown Speaker Yeah. Unknown Speaker They're cloning their work. Unknown Speaker Log into a call center. It's your first day on the job. Speaker 1 They've already got one of you. You walk them out. You're like, wait a minute, hold on. You walk in. You walk in and someone goes Unknown Speaker well, you call me at ease me. Unknown Speaker Now? Nothing. Nothing. Speaker 2 Now you walk in and the first row is all like the new people. Yeah, so they're all different. Second row is different. So then Unknown Speaker the second row and Speaker 2 you meet Becky in the first row? Yeah, then you you get up after the first few calls your training balls. Go to the restroom. And you start to notice like there's it's all Becky 100 Becky's Speaker 4 and they all say the same call. It's the line and you just hear that echo. It sounds like you're talking about army. Unknown Speaker Thank you for calling PES Speaker 3 PES. I'm one of the peasants professors. So So why is this guy interesting to me? Speaker 2 McWeeny he ran this company it was a tight ship Unknown Speaker sorry it was a tight ship. He ran on lean. Hot dogs Speaker 4 Well, let's find out I don't know. weenie hot dog this Unknown Speaker back guarantee they did. Speaker 2 They call it the MC hot dog. Which is a miss. And it is. It looks pretty bad. I'm not gonna lie. It's one of the worst looking hot dogs I've ever seen. Really? It's a bad look. Unknown Speaker I don't know. I've never seen a hot dog I would need Unknown Speaker let me show you a picture of this Nick. Hot dog. It's Speaker 2 not a surprise that this ain't around no more because this is rough. Good branding now. Oh, hey, it looks like it was in Japan. Maybe I'm not sure I can't read Speaker 1 that. But what are we on the top of the heart? Don't think it's relish. But it's you know why this didn't take off in America, the whole grain bond. That's what I'm saying, oh, Americans. It's it's trying to sneak some health and yeah, all right. It's worse for me if I'm going somewhere and getting a McWeeny Yeah, I want it. Unknown Speaker This week, we need to make kill me. Unknown Speaker So Scott McWeeny. So Scott McWeeny, he Speaker 2 ran a very tight ship. And he he was he wanted to make all the decisions. He wanted to make the call and hit a home run and be right. He wanted to be the guy. Yeah, yeah. And so he would find these licensing deals with big American brands, and they would license their new Pez carriers. Yeah. Meanwhile, PES International is out here making their own licensing deals that are globally interesting, right? And they're sending it off to Pez America and be like, Hey, we got this new license, did it licensing deal. We'll ship it off to the US. And he N McQueeney is like that wasn't no. So here, we're not selling out here. And so he had to sign off on everything that Pez America or pas global, brought in, because he wanted to be the guy. He wanted to be the decision. That's the only reason and he'd be like, he'd be like, No, you guys are ignorant. That'll never work here. He's like, you guys don't know what's, what works in the States. He's like, I know what works in the States. You don't know what's working. I'm here. I'm the president. I'm Unknown Speaker Bucha. workaround. Yeah, Speaker 2 yeah. I'm the president. You're the new world order. We're not? We're not part of Unknown Speaker the UN doesn't get to tell me what to do. Speaker 2 Yeah. And so there were a lot of series in the McQueeney era of PES characters that never sold in the US. And hey, we're not available. What's the word? Good, not legal to sell in the US because Sure, was no license for the US to sell them. So you could if you're a serious collector, go overseas, find someone who had it, purchase it come home, whatever. But you could not sell it in the US because there was no licenses available for interested us. And this is where Steve glue came in. And Steve glue, he noticed that there's this weird little law with customs, where if you own a business, that imports goods from overseas, if you want to stop that product from being imported into your nation, if you have the license for it, you're allowed to prevent that. You just have to file that paperwork with customs. But if you don't, people who don't have the license, can import it. And it's illegal, perfectly legal, to bring that to import that if they purchase it overseas. Sure, import it in. Technically speaking, what happens after that? If you sell it, if you don't have the license? It's probably illegal. But importing is legal. Okay, and PES Speaker 1 missa. Did you say the same thing three times? I don't understand what happened. So he can go somewhere, buy it come back, but he still can't sell it in the States. Speaker 2 Yeah, so he's allowed to import it. But I realize that you Speaker 1 said it a very simple way the first time. And then you said it a unnecessarily complicated way. Speaker 3 We'd like you to understand No, I tried to fully onboard you. You looked at me like so just Speaker 1 goes to Europe? Yeah, he can buy it. He can buy he can come back to the States. Yeah. And then he can't sell in the States. Because he doesn't have the license. Yes. No, I fully understood that. And then you were like, now there's some weird laws with the customs. And it all comes down to paperwork. And if they don't fill out the paperwork, Speaker 2 well, okay. Okay. Let me explain that because clearly you don't understand. I know if if you don't have a license to sell something in the US, you can't import it. Customs will stop you and say you're not allowed to sell this in the US. As long as the company that has the license files that paperwork with customs, otherwise you Speaker 1 as international didn't do the paperwork. Yeah. So he can sell it and Speaker 2 he can sell it but he can import it. Okay, yeah. And so he knows okay, I can at least get past customs. And from there, it's easy. So Speaker 1 he goes, but what customs agent what, what are you talking about, like customizing agent is going through your bag, see some Pez dispensers. And it's like, these are licensed in the United States. You can I know what is licensed and what isn't licensed. And I'm gonna go ahead and stop you right here. You know, saying, like what what customs agent is so brush up on his Pez collection and Pez availability. Unknown Speaker That's a decent point. Unknown Speaker Play the shot Speaker 1 of that person knowing what's licensed and what's not. When it comes to Pez dispensers, Unknown Speaker I guess that's a pretty decent but I mean, I think I think the the idea he was like, Speaker 1 oh boy, I don't want to get caught. And he's like nervous and lied to. He's got his backpack full of Pez dispensers. He's freaking swept around all the pads. You know what years this? Unknown Speaker Late 90s He's a Unknown Speaker customer. Is there anything in your bag, please? Speaker 2 Yeah, it's, it's just Pez dispensers. Speaker 1 Yeah, I can see that. Okay, all right, man. You got any illegal drugs or bombs in here? No, Unknown Speaker no just No. Speaker 1 Fully latest patches vendors don't really legal pads is licensed and ensures that illegal list passes you've ever seen these are the these are the legit legit passes Unknown Speaker such legal pas. Okay. Definitely. Speaker 1 How you're actually gonna go? Well, I think is your your taste. Hold on. Unknown Speaker I think what he said, Unknown Speaker I think he's saying that he is expecting he's not Unknown Speaker going to go all the Oh, where do they where Unknown Speaker we need to look at them and be like, Hey, why Unknown Speaker are you out of 1000? Pez dispenser. Yeah, Speaker 2 there's a lot of pets. Okay, so that's fishy. Speaker 1 Hey, I wanted to give you a heads up that our Taillon patron hangout is happening on June 29. At 6:30pm. By the time that happens, I'll be a married man. So I'm taking time away from my beautiful wife to come hang out with our $20 patron supporters. So maybe like, you know, be thankful, okay, is what I'm saying. But for real, we're very thankful for our Patreon supporters, because without you the show doesn't happen. So every month we do a hangout for a $20 tier and the next word is on June 29. At 630 Come hang out with Tim and married me. You know, it's gonna be great. Speaker 2 So him and his son, they fly to Europe. Sure. And they land in Germany near a major Pez dispenser manufacturing plant and just hanging around outside Unknown Speaker for all it's kind Speaker 1 of hoping for the leftovers like you do at Krispy Kreme, you know, saying because they throw away do you know the Krispy Kreme throws away this slightly deformed doughnuts? Yeah. And they keep fat Jaron would give you a lot of tips on how to get some flame. Legally they can't stop Speaker 2 you if you take it out of the dumpster. That is true. They are not allowed to say no. The police legally Yeah, Speaker 1 but if you can't get it back, if you can't get a bag of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts out of the trash and away from there faster than the police arrive. Yeah, that's on you. Yeah, that's on you. And that's where I knew I needed to lose weight. But what So, Unknown Speaker but the thing is Krispy Kreme being a donut shop. It's crawling with the cops. Yet to be sneaky. Unknown Speaker We love stereotypes. Speaker 4 I just like it's like it's like that Burger King video game. You have to sneak into the Krispy Kreme to get your trash for free is Unknown Speaker a really like $1.80 Speaker 1 is a Christian you're risking years in prison over a Krispy Kreme donut over a deformed speaking of prison. We have a friend. We do in prison. Yeah. Militia militia wrote us a letter. Yes. We did read it. Unknown Speaker I'm, I'm legally required to say Speaker 1 hey, I'm Alicia. If you're still listening to this, you know, sorry about all the other prison jokes are made in previous episodes. About how much prison time we would do in exchange for you know, but thanks for thanks for that, Senator. That was really that was really tiny and uplifting. Yeah, it was really nice. We Speaker 2 loved it. We're gonna write you a letter. Yeah. Got it by now. And for Speaker 1 other listeners. She said that she's sharing it with all her friends in the prison, which is more than you're doing you sacks of crap. telling your friends air about us? You know? Yeah, she's got a whole prison unit. I think she says Dylan fans down there. Speaker 2 I think she said the words I promise I didn't start a call. And so the fact that none of you have started, Unknown Speaker can't be bothered to leave a five star review. Anyway, thanks, Felicia Gerrans might be sorry if we were mispronounced your name by the way. Speaker 3 We debated it might is my light is my my gosh to hit Gerrans light is my man. So anyway, everybody say that out loud no Speaker 2 matter where you're listening right now. Gerrans light is my Speaker 1 house. Spooky would it be? If she's in that prison cell and the whole prison right now? They're all happen to be listening at the same time. Speaker 4 That was spooky would it be? You're at Old Navy? Oh, yeah. And you're like, you're like looking at a new pair of jeans and you just hear from the changing room. Speaker 1 over who's listening to the podcasts in the changing room who's got headphones in while they're trying on new clothes take and interrupt this. What if you're a pas headquarters in 100? Becky's? The pas Palace like headquarters, so, um, so he and his son go to Germany they're hanging out around a Pez dispensary. Yeah, thanks Unknown Speaker Spencer Spencer Speaker 4 dispenser Okay, first of all, why are there not storefronts called dispensaries that sell Pez dispensers? Pez dispensers. Speaker 2 That's is still a thing. Can you still go buy pads just publicly, Unknown Speaker but it's not licensed? Unknown Speaker Yeah, that's taken to the DMV. Unknown Speaker A lot. Yes. Sell it. So So he Speaker 2 goes, he goes, he starts hanging around these factories, makes a connection. Finds a guy who's a collector, Speaker 1 he makes a connection. You don't have these watches hanging outside the factories that hey, you can buy your lunch. Yeah. Okay. Speaker 2 He finds a guy in Europe who knows a lot about PES. An avid collector. Yeah, like a collector, you know, like a collector. And he's a collector. And so he's like, they bond over being collectors. And the guy's like, Hey, I've got some, some global Pez, not some American Pez you want sure it will pass? And he's like, yeah, he's like, he's like, how much? And he's like, $1,200 Speaker 1 What are they doing this? Why are you talking like this behind us work? Okay. I got some global pairs, some global pets. Yeah, they're just doing shady deals behind the circle. Okay. Speaker 2 Yeah. And so he buys he buys a handful of rare global passes. Okay. And he takes that back and he turns them for a massive profit, like $1,000 profit each pass. Who? Okay, there's cuz here's the deal. You couldn't get those in the States. Man. We're stateside. Yeah, honest Speaker 1 with you right now. If I came home, and my wife by the way, if you're listening to this, I'm married. I'm not married yet. recording this. So that's why Speaker 3 I keep saying it. It's a gamble. It's gonna it's off. You know, Speaker 1 I'm gonna it's, you know, for the next probably 10 episodes. I'm gonna mention it just so you guys know. Yeah. But if I come home and my wife is like, hey, so I saw an opportunity couldn't pass it up. And I spent an extra $1,000 this month. Yeah. Oh, okay. I mean, that's that's a budget item. Sure. Yeah. What did you get? And she goes Speaker 3 it's this it's super rare. It's super rare. It's only available globally is the only one in United States Yeah, it's Unknown Speaker it's the queen Unknown Speaker with the queen I was gonna go Tony the Tiger Unknown Speaker it's available everywhere right. Speaker 5 But look, it's but look when i Hello. She did that wasn't me. Hello. Speaker 1 That's two pieces each time to two syllables. Hello. Unknown Speaker Shooting PES all over the carpet trying to show you Unknown Speaker though Your peasant everywhere. Unknown Speaker I was so past what I saw. Speaker 1 I was working through all the all the PES pawns in PES off was one I was going to work towards. I did say the real word the other night during the show. And Unknown Speaker the crowd gasp Speaker 1 almost. It was definitely it was a ladies event. And it came up my mouth and you know I've ever said something. And as it's coming out your mouth, you're like, No, I Speaker 2 should have said that. I know. That's fine. Speaker 1 Yeah. I sold him a lot of Pez dispensers after Speaker 2 global ones even. So he made a big profit and he sent me a glass case Speaker 1 or like here's my Pez imagine Okay, let's walk through another scenario. You're rich, right? Divorced obviously and you're going out trying to date again you're trying to impress some young ladies right so you bring you throw a party at your house and you're like you want to show off how rich you are? Yeah, so you go Hey, ladies, you guys want to see my expensive collection and they think diamonds they have aches reaches crushers sword you lead into your garage? Yeah. That is lined wall the wall with cases. Yeah. And it's just well lit by the way. They're always Speaker 2 well lit. So as dispensers everywhere marble floors. Unknown Speaker You know what's crazy is that you have their faces on pistols Unknown Speaker that's like a Peele movie. Unknown Speaker This one's You are you in pest? impressed and pest? In PES. Creepy. Unknown Speaker Gosh, I hate that so much. Um, yeah. So he he makes, Speaker 2 he turns his for profit. Yeah. And so he turns to his wife, and he says, Speaker 1 This is our life. This is what I need to do. I just quit my job. I just quit my job. Speaker 2 Well, he didn't quit his job yet. But he did go back. And he met some influential people in the PES world overseas. Like PES global corporate. Yeah. Allegedly. Now here's where the story gets a little difficult. According to the people at corporate PES global. This isn't true. They were just friends. Sure. According to Steve glue, they were his suppliers. Okay, and they said, Don't tell anybody about this. I don't know you. You don't know me. But if anyone Unknown Speaker asks, we're just friends. Speaker 2 Yeah, but we just got this huge pallet. Speaker 1 What kind of international pieces he bring it over? Like, can I see an example of any of them? Actually, Unknown Speaker I don't know. That's a good question. Speaker 1 I'd love to see one and go that's International. You know, like, what what pieces weren't available in the United States? Speaker 2 I mean, it was all over the place. It was characters that it was characters that this Scott Nicolini guy just was like, oh, yeah, this won't work in the US or it wasn't my idea. So we're not going to do this in the US. Okay, I think a lot of them were not like licenses. Because like, because I think Scott make weenie was licensing stuff on like Disney and stuff. Sure. Trying to be like, Oh, these are big characters that kids already know. Vote Yeah, though. We're and these were just like, these were just those one mayor's guys. Yeah. And he was like, he's like, No, we're not doing that in the States. So is the stuff that are weird. Here's a here's a good example. This one is called Alpine man with moustache. It street value is $1,024. Okay. And it is just like this. How much $1,024 Oh, this is the dude in Alpine man with a mustache picture that you probably close. Unknown Speaker It's currently for sale. I've been looking for that. How much could we spend Tim? Unknown Speaker Oh, gosh. Unknown Speaker Tim. Unknown Speaker Support us on Patreon. Patreon. Unknown Speaker Patreon. Speaker 1 That sounds like a country made up. Okay, so just different items. Yeah, they were just used like the Americans are gonna hate it. Yeah, Speaker 2 American kids. They don't know what this is. It's not it's just a fun character that you just made up. Unknown Speaker And so give it a movie first. Speaker 2 So the reason why this relationship worked, allegedly was because PES global wanted to sell their stuff in the US. But PES us was being kind of a butthead about it. But Scott Unknown Speaker explained a true McQueeney about it. Yeah, Speaker 2 so the reason this relationship worked, allegedly is because Steve was showing up to PES global and PES global wanted to sell their stuff in the US. But Scott McWeeny was being a butthead. Like he was like, No, it's not my idea. So Unknown Speaker we're receiving a commission back to them. Allegedly. Speaker 2 Allegedly, no, allegedly, he was just buying the stuff outright and wholesaling, like wholesale. And then going back and selling it in the US. He was doing what he was buying it wholesale. Okay. And then selling us get Speaker 1 us around us a lot of words sometimes it's funny. That's what you know, I got it. Right. You know, I'm saying like when I got him good. When I go, what was it and he goes go back and listen to him and say, right. So Unknown Speaker the President, the President was being a butthead Unknown Speaker about it. Yeah. Big. Speaker 2 Global was like, Yeah, we're what I'm doing fine. We're Speaker 1 another to this guy. Yeah. And he and they're just like this the profit you make on it? Yeah. And then he is he paying a pretty high markup on it. He's paying wholesale because they're printing Speaker 2 them and they're sent shipping them all over the place. Yeah, and he's getting a whole bunch of these go back to Dallas dollars selling them on the gray market. On the gray market. It's a gray area. It's not black market items. It's not white market. It's gray in the gray area. I mean, I guess technically black market because it's not licensed, but he's selling it is reselling as like a collector. It's sure it's a weird gray area. Right? Okay. So it's coming back to the US and he's making fat profits on these. Yeah. So eventually he quits his job. He was a machinist. He would just cut Speaker 1 him out on the street performing is pretending to be a machine Speaker 1 you could do that. Thanks. That was really good. Can I wish for you? Till in talent night? Let's do a tail on talent show. Unknown Speaker Can I open for you please let me open to that. But Speaker 1 ladies and gentlemen, Tim stone Speaker 5 bonus points if you get the headset mic a little too far in front of your mouth. Yeah, it's just like so. You're Unknown Speaker peeking. Yeah, Unknown Speaker you're just blowing on the mic. Unknown Speaker I just do it. Like 20 minutes. Speaker 1 That's how long 20 minutes? How long are we dating a good rule? Three. Do you think you think that someone would sit through there for 16 minutes and go this is fine. Unknown Speaker It's this sort of thing where at that at that timeframe? Unknown Speaker At the beginning, it's like ah, it's pretty funny. Speaker 4 Guy just walked up on stage. This isn't as funny anymore and you're like yeah, this was this was not a joke. This has been and then and then and Speaker 1 then it's kind of like okay, this is still a bit and then there's a moment in the middle where it gets kind of Unknown Speaker finally kind of easy still. Unknown Speaker This is wild commitment. And then there's a point Speaker 4 falls off and it falls off hard. People started throwing stuff and started yelling things at me. They said the building on fire never saw Speaker 1 the fire department shows up. You're just a crisp little robot in the middle there. Forever memorialized. Unknown Speaker Fire broke it Yeah. Unknown Speaker A SoundCloud rapper Unknown Speaker shows up and started rapping over the Speaker 1 Okay, so quit his job. He's done. He's like I life on the roads too tough. As a machinist. I gotta come home. But first, I need to go. Buy a bunch of PES. Unknown Speaker Literal boatload of pets. How many Unknown Speaker is he buying these Speaker 2 trip? At the height of his career? He went and he made a half a million dollar purchase on PEZ and is coming back with literal boatloads of pets and customs customs. The first time he comes back with like a pallet load of Pez customs. He's like, How will a Pez and now custom flags it? And custom says we got to I mean, you're not Pez. Yeah. So you can't import this. And so they look at the paperwork. And they check in they're like, Oh, well, PES never filed it. And they I saw an interview with the actual customs agent, Speaker 1 who the real one who was like, this is sketchy. Yeah. And Speaker 2 he checked in he said, Well, if they're dumb enough not to file their paperwork, then come on in. And that's exactly what he said. And this guy, just let them import the PAs. And he built this operation. He started doing these like, Where does he keep them? He's got a warehouse. Yeah, here I actually have a picture of his warehouse. Has warehouse and I literal pallet loads of pet. These are all peasants. This is just some random picture of a warehouse. I'm kidding. Now. This is actually from his blog. Unknown Speaker Watson just got a blog. He has a pet Speaker 2 blog. Okay. And so he he's running this this sophisticated operation. Sure. He's going to these past conferences so Speaker 1 risky, because I mean, at any point, it's over. Speaker 2 So he's going to these PES fan conferences. Yeah. Okay. He's got to these past fan conferences. He's selling all these these rare passes at these conferences. And making a lot of money making a killing, selling. Yeah. So he gets an invite to go to like an official Pez conference to sell at the Pez con. Speaker 1 And they're like, what that feels like a trap. Yeah, here's, here's why. You can see the Unknown Speaker guy left. Well, he's the bearded guy. Speaker 2 This is like his booth that he would set up at conferences. Speaker 1 He's a for those for Audio listeners. He looks like Unknown Speaker he looks like he would set up a marathon in middle school janitor. Unknown Speaker Beard. Big glasses. He looks like that guy was you know attire? Yeah, Speaker 2 it looks like the middle school janitor who's been saying he's gonna be here for like 30 years. You're Speaker 1 the guy. Yeah, if I told you about the janitor of my middle school? No, who had a comic book collection worth like a lot of money? Yeah, yeah. So I mean, kinda so I mean similar costumes. Robert. Yeah. But he has like three copies of the first ever Spider Man. That's kind of cool. Like he's I mean he's that's his retirement plan is his causes conflicts. Seriously? Interesting. He's got a lot of them. But anyway, so yeah, he looks like a middle school janitor. Big glasses long beard. And next to him is a clown. Yeah. Speaker 2 Literal. Full clown. Not not like a clown of a person. But like a clown. But Kalinago clown of a clown. Like a happy little clown Unknown Speaker with a Pez hat. Yeah. Speaker 2 And so he gained some notoriety selling these aftermarket passes. Sure. Or these I guess, gray market poses. Yeah, and making bank don't make an absolute bank making these trips over to Europe getting some stuff from the the dispensaries. Speaker 1 I like to enrich and looks like that, you know, that makes me feel great. Speaker 2 Hey, thanks for checking out this episode. If you like it, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Speaking of future episodes, we have a ton of past episodes. We have a back catalogue of well over 100 episodes. So check those out. My current favorite is Nelly Bly. She was a journalist from the early 1900s, who totally changed the industry, especially for women in the industry. Super cool story, but also kind of crazy. Some of the things that she did. We had a lot of fun in that episode. So check that out. Don't forget to subscribe, but ultimately just thanks for being here. Speaker 2 And he's not he's not it's not clear. Again, it's he claims that he's getting all these straight from global corporate. Okay, global corporate maintains that he must have had known someone at the factory that was sneaking them out of the factory sniffing out Speaker 1 pallets for him at the factory. Yeah, we checked the security camera footage, we found nothing. Yeah, we couldn't find one moving pallets. Speaker 2 Here's the thing about how the corporate structure of the company work though. PES America was really just the corporate engine. They didn't manufacture these in America, they still use the same manufacturing arm of peds global. So every time they had their license stuff, they would send it off to PES global and be like here's our stuff. And they'd print them and then ship them back to the US and be like, Okay, now you're ready to sell your stuff. And the President, remember McWeeny he had a passion project, a his own little Pez character he was designing. And he had been working on it for years prototyping this thing getting prototypes, made shipping them off to PES global to get these prototypes printed and sent over and testing and then keeps iterating on this right. Okay. Somehow, Unknown Speaker it looks just like Speaker 2 somehow glue gets his hands on these prototypes. Okay, he brings them back to the States. And he starts selling them. And he's got him at his like conference booths. And he shows up to this conference. And Steve glue has his Speaker 1 he literally goes to McWeeny and he goes This one's you Unknown Speaker he does the thing too. Unknown Speaker So these are Unknown Speaker these are some prototypes of the character that Unknown Speaker he was given his life to was a hot topic cabbie. These CB headliner, Unknown Speaker these these Speaker 1 dudes, for those listening. It's a typical cartoon character face with a huge years and a round nose. Yeah, with pink hair. And a police hat and a police like a cabbie hat or police hat. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And McWeeny was like I spent years prototyping Unknown Speaker will crush in the States. But everything else Unknown Speaker I said, but this is what it's going to do. Speaker 2 But this had never hit market yet. Like he was still iterating on this idea. He was still testing it. Still working on it. Yeah, he was still working on it. And then Unknown Speaker burns need to be a little while. longer. Speaker 2 And now this guy is at his conference selling his product that he hadn't released yet his secret passion product product project, Speaker 1 I can't explain to you how much I hate that this was his secret, like you have to, you have to look at the video version of this episode, or at least Google this, to see what I'm talking about. That McWeeny Unknown Speaker devoted his life to these Speaker 1 would then tear down Steve's enterprise over this character. Speaker 2 He had another iteration that Steve also had got his hands on here. I'll pull this one in as well. So you can see this other iteration of this character. Speaker 1 Same character with red hair like normal red hair, not bright pa with a green bowl. green Unknown Speaker ball. Like the big bowl that when you watch a movie, you know a big bowl. Yeah, that Unknown Speaker one that big. Your mom Speaker 1 was loved to use. Yeah. And if you use it, she'd be like, What are you doing my popcorn bowl? Yeah, that's my that's my horrible mix Speaker 2 her rough. Porn. Yeah, sometimes m&ms If it was a really good weekend, or if it was m&ms and popcorn mom. Speaker 1 Yeah. And then you didn't realize how much of a genius she was trying to realize that she spent her whole life working on that project. For the whole family like that. You're ruined Homeward Bound by IBM, like, hey, m&ms in the popcorn. What are you doing, mom? Why don't you get the m&ms? Separate? Right. And she's like, why don't you mind your own? Speaker 4 Business? Yeah, I will take this movie Back to Blockbuster tonight. We want him to Speaker 1 go to bed. A little brat. That's what she that's what my mom would do. My mom would turn the volume up on a movie. I wasn't allowed to watch just as she would. So I would know she Unknown Speaker was watching the other room, but I wanted to watch it or Unknown Speaker you're gonna hear it and you're here. The spoilers at the Unknown Speaker end. Yeah, you're gonna know what happens. No, you're in your bedroom crying so you're holding a bullet you're holding Unknown Speaker your pillar holding turbos that you got yours got Unknown Speaker four pillows the whole house was insane. Speaker 1 Over You know, it was I went to a Pez coffee conference. And there's a little character with two bowls on his ears. And I was like, who saw my childhood? That's that's me. This is my life project. So anyway, he's got a bowl on his head. I can't believe that that's when he gave his life to so make weenie Speaker 2 was furious. And it became a personal vendetta for McWeeny to crush Steve glues. gray market pas How did you get these? Yeah, Unknown Speaker I don't know. I made them I designed them. Unknown Speaker These are my designs. They're originals. Unknown Speaker That's my design. Prove it prove Unknown Speaker it glue away I'm glue prove it we Unknown Speaker proven the winning Unknown Speaker that's your Unknown Speaker had a hot dog from McDonald's before just as insulting to his face that Unknown Speaker question. Speaker 2 And so what McWeeny does McWeeny had the idea he said he said okay, he said you're gonna you're gonna fight fire we're gonna fight fire. And so the next day Unknown Speaker I'm gonna shoot off your I'm gonna shoot your boat. I sank a whole cargo ship. Speaker 4 The only only one pallet one container the cargo ship was the rest of it was lazy boys because it was big that Unknown Speaker not the couches. Unknown Speaker So many leads on this boat. It's crazy. Unknown Speaker They weren't doing anything Unknown Speaker they were just casualties in the pegboard. Speaker 2 So the next day, he ordered 100,000 of these to be printed and shipped them to the US and was like we're selling them tomorrow. And so now this super rare Pez that was never at the market didn't exist, is now for sale for 18 cents at every grocery store in the United States. It seems Unknown Speaker like okay. I have so many other designs. Unknown Speaker I got so many other ideas. Let me tell you where to get I got another idea. You want Speaker 2 to hear my another idea? Here's I'm an entrepreneur. So I've got other ideas. You want to hear it? Sure. So what Steve does is Steve, you know, some people might say oh, yeah, corporate pas America's on me. Like I can't do any more. Speaker 1 He goes to every store in the country. A lot size elver Speaker 4 pushes about to the Michigan it like Michigan lights on fire and salute them as they've burned into the sea. Speaker 1 The cinematic shot is just odd Steve and the soft orange glow. Right in his glasses. Yeah. Speaker 2 To the image transitions that you just see peasants jumping over, overboard, burnin trying to get out and survive. Unknown Speaker They make a weird sound to a nonprofit. Oh, boy who was like okay, so how does how does Steve glue respond? Unknown Speaker Steve goes to his wife. And Steve says, Unknown Speaker Hey sunk. Not literally, don't worry. The boys are fine. Speaker 2 He says he says, he says, Honey, I have to do this honey, it's wartime. And she says he says, but there's, he said, I Steve glue. I cannot do this. He says I have to take on. I have to take on a persona. I have to take on a new me. And he says so now. I'm going to leave. I'm going to Europe. But it won't be me. Steve glue staying in the states. The Pez Outlaw is going to Europe. Unknown Speaker So he takes out this persona Speaker 2 100% cz takes on his persona, the PAs outlaw. And he's like it's all out words President vers pas outlaw who's going to win. And so he just keeps going overseas, Unknown Speaker the pairs out long. Okay, sorry. Go ahead. Unknown Speaker It keeps going overseas. Unknown Speaker Leave your wife and your kid for this. Speaker 2 He didn't leave her. He was just like, he was just like, I need you to let me do this. Like I have to pursue this. Speaker 1 If I came home, and my wife says hey, or that Queen thing I bought a couple months ago. Big expense. Yeah, yeah, I didn't like you did that. Yeah. Okay. Well, you're not gonna like this. Unknown Speaker This is gonna be worse than that. I think. I think Unknown Speaker I'm on the run Unknown Speaker because Americans after me Speaker 1 words, you got a big 10 gallon hat. And he's just like, I've he's like, Unknown Speaker I've passed off the president. You. Unknown Speaker You got any You got any child milk? The pears out law. And I'm in this town to get business done. Unknown Speaker It's the wild wild pass. Oh, yeah. Unknown Speaker For me, are you again? Because there's only two options when it comes to the Pez man. Are you in? Or do I gotta dispense of Yes. Unknown Speaker She's good. It's a good sir. But it's it's well. Oh, wait. Can we get custom Pez dispensers? I thought you can make them Yeah, yeah. I mean, they were they were Yeah. They don't make our ideas without us putting our ideas out there though. What? Speaker 1 What did you say? I was like, who your customer wants and you're like I think they make them they don't make them already. We had to customize them. Speaker 2 Oh yeah, they he did have he didn't have these you You joke but the Unknown Speaker Okay, yeah you know, it's wild Unknown Speaker I suppose just candy should you Unknown Speaker be in school right now Unknown Speaker these are banned. Speaker 3 In the US? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Scared the cops. Unknown Speaker Yeah, these these kill people. Unknown Speaker So he started going he's got them Unknown Speaker in holsters. Unknown Speaker He's just okay. So he's on. Is he on the road? Like he's not in legal trouble yet? Speaker 2 Not. It's it's gray area. Okay. Because America is not pursuing an illegal road. What they're pursuing is their Speaker 1 vigilance. Yeah, we're shutting they're not going for the law. They're going for they're going for Speaker 2 the total destruction. Yeah. And so he continues his operation. He's going overseas, he's shipping stuff back and Pez America is watching what he's doing. And they are attempting, every time he brings something in, they're like, we're gonna sell that. And so then they buy it and they start selling it and they flood the market with whatever he's buying. And so they they're trying to keep a close eye on what he's bringing in and what's rare in the US, okay, and they're like, we're gonna make it not rare. And so, pretty much every decision that they're making, after this of what Pez dispensers are going to be big in the US, which is, what did this guy bring in and try to sell? And it's hard to kind of get out that. Steve. Steve is selling it. So it's about to get pretty big, like in the it's not gonna be as rare because Steve's got it because they're trying to take them out. Speaker 1 And so after that does start to tank his business after a vicious cycle Speaker 2 of this, he kind of hangs up the hat, because he thought he could take them he thought he could keep up with them. But they're Pez, but they're Pez man. You can't you can't take on man. Yeah. And so he starts to hang up his hat. And he kind of has a moment where he realizes, you know, what, like, I could go legit. Unknown Speaker I could, I could compete, I don't Speaker 2 have to be a bad guy. Like, I could go legit. And so he goes, and he takes out a $250,000 line of credit. And he had to under $50,000 cash that he had been saving up from all this, that hidden selling prison. And he goes and he goes and goes, legit, gets his own designs, gets them legally covered, gets completely legitimate, sends them off to PES global prints a mall. And these are legitimate his own product. He's got his own line. Yeah. And what he's doing that was pretty clever. He's only doing a couple. Well, yeah, he's not doing a ton of everyone, but he's also taking already popular ones. And he's changing things about him. So he's adding different color variations of other ones. He's adding different hats or different items to them that they didn't have before. So these are his laces. So yeah, these are his designs that are Unknown Speaker done variation and like Disney, Speaker 2 Dumbo, it's not Dumbo okay. Yeah, it's rumba Unknown Speaker Okay, Speaker 2 and so he takes he takes these to market and they start selling really well because their designer brand passes from the PAs Allah Unknown Speaker you have a Steve glue. Unknown Speaker I think they're outlaw you have an outlaw Unknown Speaker was Gucci. Unknown Speaker And so, same thing, he sells these. He is starting to make good money. He's doing it legitimate Unknown Speaker in PES America is like we're gonna sell Pez copies Speaker 2 on Crushes. And then finally, that was a moment after that one where he tried to do things legitimate, where he kind of said, You know what, like, Unknown Speaker I'm out. I'm out. Speaker 2 I can't keep fighting you guys on this and trying to go back and forth like this. You guys are just killing Speaker 1 my mental health. Toll marriage. Yeah, you're just you're just, I'm, I'm an empty Pez dispenser. I'm out. Speaker 2 There's just dispense. Dispense. Dispense. We're gonna get Spence Unknown Speaker racist. Unknown Speaker How am I supposed to get sped up? Speaker 2 Okay. So he hangs it up. But five years after the fact, he realizes I think I got a story here. Yeah, I think the pens out lock and still win. And so he starts a blog. And he tells his story, okay, and he goes through all the tales, and he rides, blog posts, and it releases images of his these images look like frickin police lineups of like contraband that were captured. Yeah, he's releasing all these images of the things that he's found telling his stories, right, sure book. And then he gets a Netflix. No, it gets a Netflix documentary made about him that came out earlier this year, called the Pez outlaw. It's in his honor. And it's very good. It's worth a watch. And it tells his story. And here he is now. Unknown Speaker Oh, he's cool, though. He's using a cool old man. Unknown Speaker Yeah, he is really cool. Unknown Speaker He looks like a Portland Santa Claus. Speaker 2 And he is still campaigning in the Pez community. Speaker 1 And he says his shirt says Pez outlaw for President 2024 Yeah, Speaker 2 I'm not gonna lie. I hope he runs like legitimately. He seems to have good policy. But yeah, McWeeny ended up stepping down eventually and got replaced and pas left this chapter behind them. But the PES outlaws start here writing his blog posts and doing things in their PES community and helping grow the hobby and make a name for all told, though, over the course of his 10 years doing this, he made $4.5 million in revenue. And his biggest haul single haul was that $500,000 haul of Pez that he brought in that he purchased Wow. Unknown Speaker He never he never got sued or anything, so he didn't lose that money. Speaker 2 Well, I mean, he lost that investment. And he lost the investment in when he went legit. He invest a lot of money producing that better. So he lost that investment. But he didn't. He didn't lose it. Yeah, he didn't have any legal. Unknown Speaker Good for him, man. Speaker 2 So this is the PES outlaw, my new hero. Unknown Speaker This is who you look up to. Speaker 2 Yeah. Cool, because here's the deal. You got to think he designed this, not this. I could look up to this guy. Speaker 1 That's true. This guy, he's in the most corporate office looking thing I've ever seen in my life, too. I love Speaker 2 the idea that he got a marketing intern to come in and help him set all these up. Yeah. And he took like, Unknown Speaker pretty harsh flash lighting to Yeah, they Speaker 2 didn't have any actual lighting. He said, You got the flash. And yeah, he's like, I should be holding some shit. Speaker 1 And I is. Is peasant still in business, though. Speaker 2 Yeah, PES is still around. I haven't seen a peasant a long time, though. You said a Pez recently. No. Have you seen a Pez recently? Where are the pets? Unknown Speaker Well, I know when you get two of them close to each other. You go with this. Speaker 1 You can like and it'll it'll catch it and the other one back and forth. That's kind of cool. And do that too much. They really like when you walk away, like they come to life. Yeah. And they said too much. It turns into a particle accelerator. It will recreate them. That's actually and that's my theology. That's how we got here. Steve glue is my light Unknown Speaker steam glue is our dispenser he dispensed us Speaker 1 all right hey, I'm Alicia. Stay with us. For Speaker 2 things that are last night is a production of space Tim medium produced by Christian Taylor audio by ours Garnett video by Connor Betts, our graphics and our logo by Caleb Goldberg and our social media is run by Caleb Walker. Our hosts are Jeremiah and Tim stone. Follow us on your favorite social media platform at Taillon podcast is Ti ll en podcast. Remember to tell all your friends about us and we'll see you next Tuesday for another episode of things I learned last night. Transcribed by https://otter.ai