Episode 147: Talk w/ Product Manger of Hunter Products, Madeleine "Mads" Hunter

0:00 Hey, everybody. Welcome to Uncle Dad Talks. You know, it's been a long time, actually. It's been a while since we've done an in-line episode of Uncle Dad Talks with not only Uncle Dad, but also the man, the myth legend, the pickleball legend himself. Give it up for Mike Hampton. Well, I've got to actually play pickleball to be a pickleball champion. So I'll start working on that since that's now my new title. Moniker. Moniker. Sure. Pre-name announcement. Exactly, yes. You're the man of many names, my sir. You know, we have a very special episode today, but before we get to that, I want to address something that we're working on that's a little bit, well, it's very much close to your heart and close to mine as well.

0:47 Mike, we are currently raising funds for people who have been affected by Hurricane Helene. I kind of want to hand that over to you and talk about where the funds are going and what we're doing for that. Is that cool, sir? Yeah, so many of you have been listening, hopefully listened to our On Location Asheville episode where we went kind of all over Asheville, North Carolina. And if you've been alive in the United States the past month, you've probably heard that Asheville was completely devastated and destroyed by Hurricane Helene. And one of the segments on our Asheville episode was my sister who has been running the Biltmore Village for 12 years or something. Something like that.

1:36 And if you've also seen any of the news, and if not, the Biltmore Village was completely, completely destroyed by the floods out there in Asheville. So there's no work. And there's a full staff of people that all depend on their working wage. And now there's no one going to Asheville. So what we're trying to do is help out my sister who's been on the show a couple times, also on her Burning Man episode. So she runs that in and help her and her employees kind of, Be able to make a living and pay rent and sustain themselves through this really challenging time.

2:17 So we're looking to raise money and we have a link where you can donate to help. Because folks can't work, they're not getting paid, but rent still do. And they still need to buy groceries and gas and all the essentials that you would normally get from a paycheck, which now is not coming. So yeah, we put that together. Yeah. So if you guys go to paypal.me forward slash uncle dad helps or go to our Instagram at uncle dad talks, click the link in the bio. Any amount is appreciated. Of course, anything you can afford right now. Look, we get it. Things are expensive all across the world. But whatever you whatever you can give, that'll be great. We appreciate any help you can give to help those who need it right now. additionally for every ten dollars that you donate you will be entered in to be represented for our special halloween episode as you know i always do big on halloween and this one is probably one of the biggest line of people i've ever gotten together to help raise funds and awareness of what's going on right now so we will have team alumni which will feature myself uncle dad cali arts and a mystery guest we haven't confirmed him yet but well hopefully it's a who i think it is and of course we have team i said team alumni i'm sorry that's not team alumni team uncle dad team alumni or team celebrity as i like to call them we will have rough and prentice the third back on who plays the voice of retro watchdogs 2 we will have minson park and teddy tenenbaum back who did hulu halloween we will also have professional bmx writer and paralympian kurt yeager back on all representing

3:53 to raise awareness and funds well obviously having a good time doing it. And our thing is that if you donate and you get entered, you'll actually be represented by one of our both teams, either Team Uncle Dad, Team Alumni, and Mike, tell them what the grand prize is. Well, the grand prize is an original piece of art from, uh, from Callie Dunlap. And for those of you who are not familiar or haven't seen her art on any of the stuff that we've promoted, check her out on, uh, on our website, which is CallieDunlapArt.com or on Instagram at Callie Dunlap Art. At Callie Dunlap Art, indeed. Yes, it's going to be, it's going to be a fun time, you know, and it's just a great point to be, you know, we don't know what you got until it's gone.

4:39 Kind of thing you know so please get out there support us uh support support the arts support the support local wages you know like i mean it's tough man it's a tough thing to go through i mean it's very unfortunate so me and mike are all about it and you'll probably be seeing a lot of this promotion on our instagram so please donate support help each other out because who can help each other out if we don't help each other out is that right mike that's right that's right very right oh all right oh that'll be my new moniker help each other out mike. Now we got that out the way but again one last time go to that link paypal.me forward slash uncle dad helps or click the link in the bio at uncle dad talks on instagram all right mike now that we got that out the way let's talk about fun things yeah that's heavy, that is heavy it's heavy but there is some fun out there and right now there's a new product coming out from hunter products now i got to speak to the product manager from this australian toy company now i'll just give you a little guys a little back backstory they're called hunter products hunter products is a global company that designs develops and manufactures a wide range of products including toys sporting goods fitness equipment and aquatic accessories now we all know mike loves aquatic accessories yeah that's part of my moniker aquatic accessory mike.

6:04 What are your top three aquatic accessories yeah snorkel yeah snorkel flaps and a fin, hunting products also has a diverse portfolio of products that cater to various markets and age groups now here's a cool thing uh not only are we going to talk about the harajuku, sorry not the shiba juku sorry let me phrase that the shiba juku doll they actually also have and arguably one of the best players in the NBA and, you know, ex-NBA players, a legend in his own right. They have the official Shaquille O'Neal Shaq ball basketball. Mike, what's your thoughts on that?

6:44 Well, you know, I'm a big NBA guy and also a big Sacramento Kings fan. And, you know, Shaq is one of the longtime hated, even though he did come back for a while, was like some kind of minority owner of the Kings. He's still an enemy but I think it's great because you know Shaq's really dipping his toe into a lot of different merchandising things I think there's Shaq, I saw Shaq meat at the grocery store. You're kidding. You're kidding. Is that true? I'm not kidding. That's absolutely true. So you can eat some Shaq meat while you play with your new Shaq ball from Hunter.

7:27 Oh, my God. I love that. Okay. Well, they got the Shaq basketball collection, so please go check that out. What we're talking about is the Shiba Juku anime doll. Now, the Shiba Juku line came out in 2017. It was always like fashion forward affordability, a great thing. And you'll learn all about that in my interview because I spoke with Madeline, or she likes to go by as Mads from Hunter Products. Now, Mike, this is actually a family owned and operated company in Australia. So how cool is that? This family owned company is making deals with Shaq in Australia, giving the Americans some awesome stuff. I mean yeah that's a globalization right there if i've ever heard of it but awesome well you know and the nba has done a lot to like really really have a global audience so it looks like it's glad to hear it's working absolutely and also they're making dolls about japanese culture and it's australia you know what i mean it's amazing and this doll you know and again we talk all about it in this episode but mike i'm curious you're not really a big anime guy but I do believe you like toys.

8:32 I've collected toys. I, you know, I was just moving stuff around in a storage today and I've got a lot of ridiculous toys that I don't know if I can really get rid of. I just, I just have them. Yeah. What is your favorite doll you ever had? Yeah. You know, like I was always more of an action figure guy. And so they're not really dolls i guess people could probably look at them and say they're dolls to if saying you have a doll is something that you would want to make fun of i don't know but i was always more about more of action figure guy could you consider action figures dolls i think some people would but like remember the old gi joe's right those were dolls technically they weren't action figures they were big ass dolls you know and then like the six million dollar man that was a doll right yeah Yeah, there was the Spider-Man that was more like a doll with the fabric of suit. Yeah, the Migos? Yeah.

9:27 Yeah. I didn't have any of those. But you know what I did like to do with dolls? So my sister was a couple years younger than me, and she was a big Barbie gal, as I guess most girls are at some point. Anyways, I used to take her Barbie heads off the Barbie dolls, take the can of heads off the Ken dolls and switch them so that the Ken head was on the Barbie body and vice versa. And that would freak her out and make her cry. I don't know. But you know, you're kind of a forward thinker. Yes, you're right. Yeah. Yeah.

10:08 This is, this is okay. This is what's going to, this is what's going to happen. What a cute story that is. I hope, I hope you listen to this and like, remember that. Yeah. That's so funny. But yes. So, you know, really, I don't really got much else to say, but cause we talked about all the episode, but Mike, you know, you weren't there for this one because you're you're busy you know hooting and hollering and uh but uh we've had a lot of great fun coming up i do want you to announce uh that we will be at designer con mike how excited are you about that super stoked yeah i've always wanted to go finally going can't wait yeah it's been a lot of fun if you are going to be at designer con you listen to the show uh please email me at uncle dad uncle dad talks.com i would love to see if we can set something up for they would do an interview with you and talk about your art at designer con because we're going to be basically there or we are just there for press and uh we have the full team there because last year it was just me but we got the full team there so it's gonna be a it's gonna be a good time mike we'll talk designs we'll talk yeah we'll talk designs right and i guess that's all i got mike mike do you got anything else well just just you know thank you everybody for listening yeah please if you listen to our talk earlier about the ashville benefit that we're doing please check that out you know it'd be really great to have you help us and my sister also who was also not just traumatized by the hurricane helene but also traumatized by my head swapping doll action in the late 80s

11:44 early 90s the original hurricane mike yeah. Swapping heads cool but yeah swapping swapping heads Mike yeah swapping heads Mike, how many monitors did you guys count in this episode oh, but alright everybody enjoy the interview and we'll see you all next week and next week we will record our Halloween special which will come out on Halloween of course but please again like Mike said go out there please support the cause help us out and you can be a part of this episode and have the opportunity to get some really great stuff out of it as well. So thank you guys. And remember, we're not uncles, we're not dads. We're just someone you can talk to. We'll see you all next week.

12:29 Hey, this is Dan Brerton, creator of The Nocturnals, the spookiest comic this side of the cemetery hill. And you're listening to The Uncle Dad Talks Show. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Uncle Dad Talks. I am a solo Uncle Dad, just Uncle Dad himself, hanging out with somebody very cool who works in a very cool industry. Let's give it up for Mads of Hunter Products. Hunter Products, correct? Yes, that's correct. Thanks for having me. Yes. Thank you for being here. Let's just kick it off. How cool is it that you get to work in the industry of toys? It's pretty cool it's really cool it's very weird sometimes but it's awesome just like i'm just a big kid and grew up love it and like how surreal must it be sometimes right when you're like wow this is what i do for a living you know i mean i get to you know work on these these these these properties and kind of bring people's imagination to life that must be something that you never thought i mean i guess in your particular case it might you might have thought that would happen but But it's a family-owned company, right?

13:39 It is, yeah. No, it's crazy because a lot of my job, I'm allowed to sort of come up with what I just think of at nighttime or something. So, you know, one day I'll be working on like a giant llama that eats and talks and poops. And then, you know, the next day I'll be working on something like Shaquille O'Neal basketballs or something. So it's weird when people say, oh, how was your day? What did you? what it has work going and i have to say oh the llama's going well and you know hanging out with shack. That's amazing so specifically today we're talking about a very specific toy line that to my understanding hasn't been brought back since 2017 is that correct that's correct yes yes and that is the she is it pronounced shibajuku shibajuku yes very good yes awesome and they see The Shibujuku doll, I guess if you can just kind of tell our audience what exactly is this doll and what is the style of the doll?

14:40 So originally the doll seven years ago was based on Harajuku fashion in Japan. So the name sort of is a bit of a merger between Shibuya and Harajuku, which are both places in Japan. And it was all based on all the different kinds of crazy fashion you see, you know, from Sweet Lolita to Gothier to Decorah. We had five key styles that we identified. And from then on, it was a huge success back seven years ago. Nothing like what we ever imagined. So that was really remarkable. From then on, we approached Walmart.

15:20 We're always meeting with them regularly now, which even sounds surreal to say. But they said to us, you know, we loved Shibajuku. We want to bring it back, but we want to bring it back a bit more moody and a bit more, you know, darker and a bit, you know, Wednesday Addams kind of anime feel to it because that's obviously really trending at the moment as well as all things Japanese like Hello Kitty's coming back so they thought it was a great time and we thought that is you know brilliant idea so together we developed the new range of Shibujuku anime dolls and they're reinvented slightly so we've done the eyes a lot darker and heavier we've done like a heavier lash and darker packaging and more cooler sort of you know olivia rodrigo style outfits as well so just being a bit almost going a little bit older with them i think yeah you know i and that's kind of what i've noticed too it when looking at the older ones and to what you have guys coming out now is that there does seem to be more of a modern gothic adult look to it and i hope that's not like a bad thing to say but it does feel very much like a it feels like a like an upgraded collectible in many ways and And I think that's going to really just show very well for those who collect that type of thing.

16:43 And, you know, we cover a lot of different subjects, and anime is one of those. And I feel like anime fans are very big on eyes specifically. Right? The eyes are so specific. And the thing that caught my attention about this doll here is that it uses real eyelashes. Is that true? Yes, real fake eyelashes. Okay. Sure, sure, right. Not everyone these days. Right. Yeah, but I think that's such an important detail, though. I mean, it elevates everything, right? Like it makes it more, I don't know, like a premium product more so than it was before. I don't know. Would you agree with that? Definitely, yeah. A lot of dolls just have painted on lashes.

17:25 And these dolls, I keep looking to my left because I've got one sitting here, but these dolls really have a more realistic sort of look to their eye. And they're also very articulated. So they have 11 points of articulation, which means you can sort of do all the little poses with their hands, which is very popular in Harajuku as well. So it does definitely have that collect-a-doll feel, but at an affordable price, which is very important these days. Yeah, and can we say what that price is? Yeah, so they're currently available at Walmart and it's 1998, maybe, I think I want to say, at Walmart USA. It sounds about right, yeah.

18:07 So yeah, really affordable compared to the sorts of dolls like this that you do see in the market. Totally, and I think what's great about that too is that since it's such an affordable price, do we have accessories available for purchase as well? We are doing mini little shibat chibis they're called and so they're like a six inch doll that will be coming out and we're working on some fashion packs as well to go alongside because that's you know the funnest part and we did did launch fashion packs the first time around so keep an eye out for those definitely that's amazing and i think this this should really be like one of the biggest properties or biggest toys for the holiday right the holiday is getting close for us here and you know i'm curious do you think people are going to be interested in it because they're they're fans of anime anime culture japanese culture or just straight up because it's a well-designed product i think a little bit of both actually probably a little bit more of the whole anime trend at the moment definitely but i think one of the reasons we were able to sell this doll in so well the first time around is it's very striking the minute you look at it is sort of like captivated mainly by the eyes, I think.

19:23 And so I think grandmas or parents who might not know much about the anime trend will also look at it and say, oh, that's a beautiful doll. And hopefully pick a few up. I love it. And are you a fan yourself of Japanese culture or anime specifically? Absolutely. Japanese, everything Japanese. I've always loved it. I studied Japanese at school. It was my favorite subject. And I just love Japan. I love Japanese food, Japanese people, everything. So that's where I came from. So I have to ask you this then. What is your favorite Japanese dish to eat?

20:03 Well everything sushi, great handshake i'm i'm actually pregnant and i'm not supposed to eat sushi and i'm just like. What do you do right that's amazing uh and we're going to talk about the toys that you have those two are the ones that are next to you i just can't see but the ones that are next to you those are currently available those are named two different dolls can you describe the dolls to her audience at all like as far as like the different packages yes we've got kiki and akira so walmart wanted to go with both sort of the darker style clothing so you know akira has a beautiful sort of like gothic lolita dress on which is really a lot of detail in in and a lot of prints like little skeletons and little lace trims and she's got black white stripy socks she's got bright green hair which is really cool um and her eyes are very blue and then we've got kiki who's more of a yellow and black sort of school almost like a school girl outfit she's got a little tie and she's got you know a frilly skirt with the lace trim as well and she's got these little angel clips in her hair angel wing clips which are very popular as well.

21:20 So they're very detailed. She's got yellow eyes to match as well, which is something different. We didn't really do that the first time around. We did have one doll that had two different colored eyes, like one green and one blue. But the colors themselves weren't eccentric like yellow eyes, which are a bit more of an anime look and feel. Yeah, for sure. So what would you say is the biggest challenge or what was the biggest challenge of bringing this property back? Oh, pricing. Pricing is difficult. I mean, just with what's going on at the moment and all the years that have passed, you know, there's a certain ceiling that you can't go over at retail.

22:00 And so just working with a new factory and just, you know, looking at all sorts of different things, fabrics, materials, like the hair quality, all of that, to see what can be done to hit the price that people will be willing to pay. So definitely a lot of interest. okay and you know i i think i feel like i would do you think we'll ever see the shiba juku jaws maybe with some licensed material at all oh definitely be open to it we that would be amazing yeah that would be very very cool that i just think that'd that'd be amazing and we have a big licensing portfolio at the moment yeah it's always something where we've got our eyes peeled for so definitely definitely open to it maybe you guys can do a shiva juku shack doll.

23:01 That'll be that special limited edition run, well mads before we wrap up i i just wanted you make sure like i i really can't stress enough to our audience how cool this thing is i mean it really is something that you know i don't think it matters what gender you are i think as long as you're you are into whatever you're into it's awesome go get out there and support that this this doll specifically has such a vibrant life and look to it and i really think it's going to hit so well with with any audience and any gender and i i hope that we can see more of dolls like this with that unique anime type style with but also with the big thing to me is like you're making it at an affordable price point so everybody it can be included and i think that's so important so thank you for doing that and i guess my last one of my last questions for you is what do you hope like what do you hope to see online with people buying these toys do you want to see them like just being played with do you want to see them like people taking photos like and doing like their own like fashion shoots what would you hope to see online, Well, the first time around, I just spent so much of my life online, like, reading what people were saying.

24:11 And I loved it. They were actually removing their makeup and redoing their own looks as well. Like, I don't know how, I don't know what they were doing with, but that was really cool to see. But definitely, you know, playing around with the outfits, mixing and matching them and seeing what different styles they can come up with. And and also just posing them they had the cutest poses the first time around like you'd see shibajuku girls dressed up for halloween you'd see them you know having a little coffee or you'd see them at the eiffel tower there were just so many cute things that people did with the dolls that i'm hoping happens again because it was just really fun to watch the passionate fans out there.

24:57 I love that and creativity is so endless with like in today's world too with like figures right there's so many people taking these like in-depth photos of like photo shoots with their figures and i think you know that's one thing that draw me to this too is that i feel like shimajuku has so much endless possibility of what you could take photos with it in like you know you could bring it to you on vacation and make a whole vacation shoot you go to las vegas you can make a casino shoot right there's so much you can do with this figure and this doll and i'm so excited to see the creativity that comes from it i guess before we wrap up like one more time can you tell audience where they can learn more about your guys' products and where they can buy the Shibajuku doll. Yeah, so the Shibajuku dolls are available at Walmart exclusively in the US and they're $19.98.

25:45 Don't 100% quote me on the scent there, but I'm pretty sure. And you can find out more about us as a company on our website, which is www.hunterproducts.com.au for Australia. Awesome everybody go check it out really i think you guys are going to love this product and if you don't check it out i'm gonna be very sad because we all want to support all creators of any type and this is one that you should support so mads thank you so much for your time i really can't tell you thank you enough i'm so excited to to get our doll maybe take it on some photo shoots ourselves you know we do a lot of conventions so maybe that's our convention doll you know, that'd be awesome well thank you so much for having me as well you're very fun to talk to so thank you i absolutely appreciate that and everybody go check them out.