We have been begging for more Stargate merchandise to come our way, and now a new company, Hollywood Collectibles, is on board! Come meet one of the people responsible and see what items are coming!

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Timecodes
0:00 – Opening Credits
00:25 – Welcome and Episode Outline
02:11 – Welcoming Colin
03:30 – The History of Hollywood Collectibles
05:49 – Wrestling Background
07:17 – The Goals of Hollywood Collectibles
08:43 – Favorite Collectibles and Connections
14:58 – Stargate Prototypes
24:51 – Future Props
31:14 – Items with Various Price Points
34:18 – Being a Fan in General
43:45 – Wrapping up with Colin and Future Projects
50:58 – Post Interview Housekeeping
52:05 – End Credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Good day everyone. My name is David Read, welcome to Dial the Gate, the Stargate Oral History Project. Colin Bowman of Hollywood Collectibles is with us for this episode. This is one I’ve been looking forward to ever since his San Diego Comic Con debut of the Stargate merchandise last month. Linda Furey, my Producer Linda “GateGabber” Furey, has provided us with some content that you’re going to be seeing in this episode. They have just acquired the Stargate IP and one item is already available so we’re going to be discussing that and some of the other content that’s available. We’ve been asking for Stargate merchandise and it’s going to start coming in with Hollywood Collectibles so we’re going to discuss that with him. Before we get into any further details, if you enjoy Stargate and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, please hit that like button. It makes a big difference and will help the show continue to grow. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend and if you want to get notified about future episodes, click subscribe. If you click the bell icon we will notify you the moment a new video drops and you’ll get my notifications of any last minute guest changes. Clips from this show will be released over the course of the next few weeks on the Dial the Gate YouTube channel. As this is a pre-recorded episode our moderators are just going to be monitoring the chat, they’re not gonna be taking questions for Colin, but I’m sure we’ll have him back on as his company continues to produce Stargate content. They just acquired the license but we wanted to introduce you to the work that they’ve done and kind of give you a taste of what’s to come. Enjoy this episode. Colin Bowman of Hollywood Collectibles, welcome to Dial the Gate Sir. Thank you so much for being here.

Colin Bowman
Happy to be here. Glad to meet you.

David Read
So you guys just acquired the Stargate IP very recently. this is new IP for you is it not?

Colin Bowman
Brand new. Absolutely. We rushed and rushed and rushed to bring out a couple of samples just to say “hey San Diego, hey world. Stargate is one of our new properties and we’re excited to bring it to you.”

David Read
How many IPS do you guys have? How many shows and movies do you guys currently represent?

Colin Bowman
Off the top of my head I’m not sure.

David Read
It’s a lot.

Colin Bowman
It’s a lot but it’s not an unmanageable amount. The famous ones that we are well known for are Alien and Predator. That’s the two biggest ones but we’ve done Resident Evil, we’ve done Ghostbusters, Saw, Terminator, Batman, it goes on.

David Read
How long have you been in the collectibles industry? What’s your story there?

Colin Bowman
The company began in 2005, last weekend I started my 18th year with the company, I’ve been here literally since the beginning. In those first couple of years it was a lot of bobbleheads and a lot of things being done and they were being and everything through Sideshow. There just came a time where we just said, “we’re going to set up our own warehouse and we’re going to bring in the things.” There we go, that’s how long I’ve been here. As for collectibles, if you wanted to define that to include antiques, probably over 50 years.

David Read
Wow, so that’s kind of your thing.

Colin Bowman
Yeah, it’s always been my thing. Growing up as a littlest kid, my dad collected antiques and he had, we’ll call it fantasy goods for want of a better word, store in Glasgow and then we moved into antiques. I’ve always been a fanatic for horror movies and collectibles and what toys you could get. Back in the day you were limited to magazines and trading cards; there wasn’t that many IP related toys if you like. My Matt Mason from Mattel was my favorite toy, my little Joe from Bonanza, the Marx toys and things like that. That’s where it was but they’re not very easy to find in the UK, or they weren’t back then.

David Read
You know there’s a Stargate connection with Major Matt Mason?

Colin Bowman
There is?

David Read
Oh yeah. In the pilot, Children of the Gods, Carter admits to playing with Major Matt Mason when she was a kid.

Colin Bowman
That’s right, yes. I do remember that.

David Read
There’s a flashback in Jolinar’s Memories, if you’re looking really closely, you can see the doll sitting in the background in her bedroom.

Colin Bowman
Man, that was my favorite toy. I loved it.

David Read
Before we get into the thick with Hollywood Collectibles, you mentioned a wrestling background. I thought “okay!” Can you tell us a little bit more?

Colin Bowman
Yeah. Back in the late 80s, yeah, late 80s, I saw there was going to be a boom in the wrestling industry when Sky TV took on WWF. I started acquiring and selling merchandise way ahead of anybody else in the UK, which was great. Gradually I moved into corresponding for Pro Wrestling Illustrated, I set up a few magazines myself and then eventually I became the owner, publisher, distributor, photographer for World Championship Wrestling. I did that for over six years, seven years and I was there for that whole glory period of the nWo [New World Order] so I literally got to play, if you like, at life during one of the best periods in wrestling. I traveled the globe and met everyone and worked with them. It’s more than working with them, it’s more than meeting them, I worked with them on a day to day basis. It was a lot of fun, it was tiring but it was a lot of fun.

David Read
Wow, what memories, that’s awesome. Tell me about Hollywood Collectibles. What is it that you guys do? What is it that you’re proudest of that your mission statement is?

Colin Bowman
Yeah, simply put, we produce high quality and accurate statues and props for IPs that didn’t get the current day boom, that everyone gets. There wasn’t a ton of high quality statues done for Alien and Predator and nothing for Underworld and Rocky and stuff like that. Our aim has always been to “what do we like? What do people like that they are getting completely under served?” That’s been the policy since we started, just helping the generations that weren’t as fortunate as todays to enjoy their passion every day. Behind you you’ve got your shelf with all your favorites and I’ve got an office full of crazy stuff that’s totally unrelated to anything I do. That’s the feeling we want people to have. We want somebody to be able to find something from their childhood, their teens, and be able to relive it and enjoy it and smile when they walk past it.

David Read
Absolutely, yeah, recapture a little bit of of their childhood for sure. What are some of the pieces…We’re going to talk about the one Stargate piece that’s available, the original piece that you’re starting off with for the property in a moment here. What are some of the pieces that you are most proud of that the company has offered or still has to offer?

Colin Bowman
All right, well, first of all, it’s a really unfair question. It’s like asking me to pick my favorite child.

David Read
Oh come. We all know you’ve got one.

Colin Bowman
I only have one child and it’s easy, he’s my favorite. I’m proud of everything we’ve done and even if it’s not something I was particularly interested in I was pleased with the result. For my personal favorites, Maria from Metropolis, that’s an old time…

David Read
The Android.

Colin Bowman
The stones from Fifth Element, amazing. The Selene and the Lycan from Underworld. Edward Scissorhands, the statue and also the hands. Ve Neill came over and saw them at San Diego and completely flipped out, thought they were just great. Currently, the Zuni warrior just gets the best responses from everybody of a certain age at ComiCon. Every year he’s just sitting there, his little chain on and his spear and you’ll get “scared [inaudible]” and then they explain it to their kids and stuff like that. I think that’s the other nice thing about everything we do; we’re creating connections between generations. I know that my son, he’s 18 now, but over the years I’ve been here, he’ll see something, ask me about it and then we’ll sit down and watch the movie. I think that’s just great.

David Read
Absolutely. I didn’t realize you guys did replicas of the stones from The Fifth Element, I am going to check those out.

Colin Bowman
Good luck. There was only 150 made and it was many years ago. Occasionally somebody will say “I saw these on eBay for X amount” and I’m like “you should take them because they never appear.”

David Read
Wow. Okay. Understood. You have to grab so much of this stuff. That’s the incentive where you’re kind of always running because you never know if something is going to catch fire later on. I have a replica that I spent a considerable amount of money on, which will remain unnamed, that I thought would absolutely vanish very quickly and they’re still sitting around still for sale on the original website. One of the reasons that I bought it was as an investment and it still could turn out to be but don’t just buy something for an investment. If you do, you’re already going to lose. You got to buy it because you love it.

Colin Bowman
Yeah, this is my biggest problem I have because I grew up playing with my toys. Before that Star Wars, when people started to buy two and put them away. I can’t even tell you the tears I metaphorically shed when I suddenly want something from my childhood and I go to buy it and look for it and I see that it’s $3000. I’m like, “what? It was 25 cents.” It was a ridiculous price. There’s very little that I buy that doesn’t end up torn open and, not played with, but it’s out. I can’t enjoy a cardboard box. I don’t care how great the picture is on the cardboard box, I can enjoy it. Action figures are okay because they come in the clear thing , but they end up just being pinned all over the wall. It’s like my 50,000 Funko Pops that are everywhere.

David Read
Oh my gosh. For an aside real quick, those have outlasted far longer than I expected them to in popularity. Funko has really done something right in terms of managing to cling on. I thought they were going to be around for 6, 7, 8 years and they’re still going strong. Not as strong as they were I don’t think but still pretty good.

Colin Bowman
There’s a period of Disney animation that I absolutely hate because it just seems cheap and easy and it’s not inspiring me. That’s how I felt about the Pops. I’m like, “oh my god, this is so basic…oh, you’ve got something from Boondock Saints. I’ve got to have that.” and it’s like that.

David Read
There’s an in somewhere. One of those, they’ll speak to you as a fan and it’s like, “okay, well, I will have that one.”

Colin Bowman
That’s exactly what we’ve tried to do, that emotional connection for people. That’s why we don’t have 500 licensees and 3000 products; we’re trying to do something that will have a value and speak to you and you’ll enjoy it. We don’t really even see that much of our stuff on retail secondary markets until it hits a certain plateau and somebody goes “what? Somebody bought that for this? I’m going to have some of that.”

David Read
Pay the rent this month, yeah.

Colin Bowman
That’s what it is, you know.

David Read
How were the Stargate prototypes received at San Diego Comic Con and which ones were your favourites?

Colin Bowman
I didn’t know what to expect because it’s not even something that I was aware of seeing cosplayed much. Normally I can get a feeling of how a property is going to be if I’m seeing 9 million Colonial Marines still running around. With this it was hard to say but the amount of people that walked in and were initially surprised, knew what it was exactly, were kind of shocked and stunned. They would share all their favorite memories from the different shows and who their favorite character was, I think Teal’c comes off as probably the most named character I heard. People will go “if you do a Teal’c statue then I’m there.” What would he wear? I’m like, “which version of him?”

David Read
Yeah, there’s numerous version of him. Yeah.

Colin Bowman
Surprisingly, so many of them cosplayed and would show me pictures on their phone of them dressed up or for Halloween or whatever. I think people really like anything that they can wear a uniform. Like Ripley, everyone loves the jumpsuit because it’s an easy thing to do. Those costumes they use when they go through the gate are pretty easy to do.

David Read
It’s military stock, you just need patches.

Colin Bowman
That’s it. Then of course, lots of questions about how much everything was going to cost, which I had no answer for whatsoever. Things were so new, the Anubis was absolutely amazing. He’s a quarter scale, he stands almost 24 inches high, which puts him almost towards third scale. When we were doing the big characters from Resident Evil, the Nemesis and the Executioner, were so much bigger than every other quarter scale because it would look stupid if we just said, “quarter scale is 14 inches or 18 inches.”

David Read
You got to feel it out.

Colin Bowman
Yeah, it was very positive. It made me excited to get the things out to people and let’s see what else we’ve got coming along.

David Read
What do you have coming along right now for Stargate? Tell us what’s on offer now? Keep in mind everyone that you guys just got this thing.

Colin Bowman
Let’s start with the mirror. It’s a 20 inch mirror, I know you guys have probably seen the 12 inch which was kind of thin. The 20 inch mirror has a lot more coverage.

David Read
Hello, gorgeous. [Colin holds up mirror to display]

Colin Bowman
So there you go. It’s 20 inches, it’s thick, there’s pictures over on the website. In fact, something for you guys just because it’s you. If anyone goes online and wants to buy it, it only went live a day or two ago, if they use the code DHD, as in dial home device, 12, no spaces, [DHD12] they’ll get 12% discount on the mirror. That’s just for you guys.

David Read
We appreciate it. DHD12, okay.

Colin Bowman
That’s just for you.

David Read
Thank you so much.

Colin Bowman
Also at the show we had the first prototype of our amulet of Ra. Hopefully that won’t be too long, it’s in the pre-production stage where everything has to be just right. I’m a stickler, particularly for this one piece, I really want to make it right. That’s just not going to be rushed out. Anubis I know we’ve finished photographing so that should hopefully appear on the site soon. It’s incredible, the detail down to the stones, the sapphires, the rubies, what am I trying to say? The staff weapon, it’s just beautiful, absolutely one of my favorite things we’ve ever done. I used to love Egyptology as a kid going through school, history was my thing. Egypt was definitely the most fascinating of all the places because you had the double thing; you had the mystical. you had the historical, you had everything going on. So many fans of Egyptology want this Anubis just to sit in their collections with their Tutankhamun and everything because they think it’s just so amazing.

David Read
Yeah, it definitely gives off that level of vibe. The amulet, is that going to be full scale or is it going to be half scale? What’s your plan for the amulet?

Colin Bowman
Nope, full scale, full scale. I think Linda probably grabbed some photos of the pre pre pre pre prototype. I honestly don’t put too much stock in most things that we’ve had to rush to get to San Diego. It’s more like, “this is what we’re doing. Please tell me what you see that’s not right. I can guarantee you that I’ve already spotted it way earlier and we’re probably four versions further on by the time we get there.” COVID taught me this as well. Rather than waiting till something is at its final and best look and it’s fully painted, I’d rather take stuff and show people the process. We had Robocop there, he was unpainted. All the pieces were there but we hadn’t time to paint. The year before we had that giant Hunter Predator on the tree. Kane from Alien was there last time in the primer. This year he was there fully painted up. It’s nice for people to just keep up with what you’re doing and show them that this will be coming, probably in a year, but you’re seeing it now and start saving.

David Read
Yeah, it’s what you’re working on. Absolutely.

Colin Bowman
I just don’t want to take final products out there, I want to show what we’re doing. We’re well known for doing the life size alien big chap, stands like eight foot tall. We had taken it out, not finished, but fully painted and everything, it was just to get the approvals. We were really unhappy with the head so I had the head redone, remolded, the dome fixed. I was like, “well, if I take this out the second year how are people going to know what they’re looking at?” They might just think, “oh, this the same photo op as last year.” So I broke everyone’s heart, I primered with a spray can myself the whole alien body apart from the head so that your focus was completely on that head and you knew something had changed. That’s the level I want to go to to explain what we’re doing to people and to actually engage in conversations.

David Read
Absolutely. You’re there to build relationships and make a connection with people who love a series or a film just like you. The Stargate prototypes at the convention were all film related. Have you just secured the license for the feature film or any of the shows at this point as well?

Colin Bowman
We have the license for everything.

David Read
Okay. Wow. All right. All the way through to SGU. Okay.

Colin Bowman
We are excited about SG-1 and we’ll work our way through as we work our way through like we do with everything. We actually have the license to produce anything from the movie to the shows.

David Read
Okay. What else is in the pipeline or are you waiting for sales for the mirror before making that call? Can you give us any hints?

Colin Bowman
No. We will never base anything we’re doing, our business plan, on “well, let’s just put this out there and then see what happens.” We’ve invested too much time and money in the license and it’s our job to push these things and get them through. I can’t be really specific at the moment with what else we’re going to be doing. We’ll definitely be looking at more statues and more props. I don’t want to get specific, this industry is too bouncy.

David Read
Absolutely.

Colin Bowman
I would say the odds are, yes, that you will see a staff weapon and a Zat gun.

David Read
That was my next question, what are the odds of a staff weapon or a Zat? That’s great. Be sure, in the design, to put a metal core down the middle of that staff gun because trust me, they bow over time. Whatever you do, be sure to do that.

Colin Bowman
We’ve done some seriously large weapons in the past. We did the what the Smartgun from Aliens which is a huge piece. The whole center of that was a steel bar all the way down.

David Read
You don’t want it to flex too much.

Colin Bowman
No, absolutely. We make props that are replicas and display pieces to be looked at and enjoyed. When you’re going to that level of detail these aren’t toys.

David Read
No, they’re like models, museum pieces.

Colin Bowman
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had somebody say, “Oh, my friend came over and he saw my pulse rifle. He picked it up and he started slamming the things and didn’t realize it was resin and he snapped it and broke it and everything.” I’m like, “there’s nothing I can do. Just don’t let your friend in your house anymore.” These things are really high quality real works of art. Every single thing we do is individually hand painted and it’s just value. I swear, if I’m spending $900 on something like a Pulse Rifle, nobody’s getting to play with that. It’s on its shelf and it’s there. There are other cheaper alternatives you can do for cosplays. You can’t tell people what to do with their stuff but when I hear some things, it’s scary.

David Read
I had movie nights at my house, this is just a quick aside, for years before COVID. One night I had a bunch of guys over, I ran to the gas station to get something and if I recall correctly, they sent me a photo of them wearing two of my helmets that were in my collection. These aren’t replicas, they’re the original thing and they were just joking around. I should have let them have it, but just don’t mess around with my stuff, don’t be stupid. What can you do?

Colin Bowman
It’s frustrating cuz you don’t actually know what something is. You don’t know if it’s a $5 toy from Walmart or if it’s a $5,000 original prop. Best not to touch it is my thing. We try and make our booth very customer friendly when they come in. You can see everything clearly but I can guarantee you if I leave one gap somebody’s hand will be in there and I’ll just be like, “can you not touch that please?” They’re like “Oh, sorry.” I’m like, “yeah, that sign there,” but that’s okay.

David Read
The sign that says “don’t touch.”

Colin Bowman
I believe that the “do not touch” sign actually means “please touch.” If I put a sign up that says “please touch” nobody would. I believe that.

David Read
We’re very tactile, especially at conventions, we want to handle stuff. I think that every booth should at least have one thing that you can…”here, you want to touch something, touch this one.” Give them something that they can interact with but for most of it, hands off.

Colin Bowman
It’s only because at the convention, what’s there is the probably the only copy in existence at that time? It may still have to go to the licensor, it may still have to go to the factory, it may still have to come home with me. I want it to be in a reasonable shape, it’s hard enough getting the stuff from your warehouse to the booth in one piece as it is.

David Read
That’s true and these are your archive pieces because they’re the prototypes. You’re not just going to chuck them after the event. Are you hoping to create a number of different items for a number of different price points?

Colin Bowman
That is always the hope. We always hope for that but as you’re aware, economically, the world is not a friendly place, particularly at the moment. The one thing about us at Hollywood Collectibles is we’re set up to produce good quality items on low production runs. We don’t want to be in those situations where we’ve overproduced or cannot deliver something we’ve promised. The one thing we do offer is a very flexible range of payment plans, or layaways, depending on which way you want to describe it, that helps absorb the sting of a large payment. I’m the easiest going person in this industry when it comes to the payment plans. I understand life happens and life comes first. If for some reason you can’t for any reason make your payment one month or two months or six months, I don’t care. If you’ve made your one payment or two payments for something, that’s yours. I will just wait until you are in a position to say, “can I finish it now? Can I restart the payment plan?” or really “I have to cancel it.” and that’s the end of it. There’s no pressure from me. I know there are some places out there “you don’t make your payment, you’re not getting your piece, it’s gone.” I’ve worked in this industry my whole life and I understand the importance of building relationships with your customers. The payment plans are actually my biggest connection because it’s something that really has taken off, it’s a necessity, but it shouldn’t be torture either. You shouldn’t be sitting there at home, “I’ve got to make my $75 payment, I can’t. The mortgage is due.” Just message me, it’s like done, taken care of, suspended until you’re ready to go and that’ll be it.

David Read
That’s a big deal, especially now when things are so financially volatile with all this stuff happening geopolitically and everything else. We long for these connections to simpler times and all of what you produce are harkening us back to those simpler times. I’m glad to hear that you’re going to keep it waiting for them. If someone really wants it, you’re going to make it happen.

Colin Bowman
I’m also not going to send it to you until you’ve paid for it all, but good try.

David Read
No, no. That’s not how that works. How long have you been a Stargate fan?

Colin Bowman
Ah, okay, here it is. Here’s the deal. In my life, I think “fan” is too strong a word to describe anything. Except Batman, apart from Batman.

David Read
You and John Sheppard would get along well.

Colin Bowman
When you reach 60, I’ve enjoyed so many movies and shows. My wife and I still try and see at least six new releases a month too just keep out there. Those little A-lists from AMCs are incredible. We’ll take a Sunday and we’ll see two or three movies and just sit there. I worked in the film industry in the late 70s, early 80s, when the technology was just really booming. Michael Jackson was doing all those morphing videos and the Terminator was doing all these things like that, your wildest dreams as a young adult were coming true. This wasn’t any longer just, “you will believe a man can fly.” This is like, crap, “you’ll believe everything is possible.” It’s really a hard thing to say you’re a fan of anything because you’ve seen so many. My voodoo list of movies is so eclectic and goes from crazy stuff from Kentucky Fried Movie all the way through. The Blues Brothers is another thing, I’m a huge fan of, Belushi was a god. Then you’ve just got all this science fiction and then this modern horror. The stupid Purge movies are crazy but how scary is that?

David Read
They have their audience.

Colin Bowman
And I’m in that audience. These A24 movies, the Blumhouse things, they move up.

David Read
They’ve taken off. Yeah, A24 especially, they’re something to look out for. Every time I turn around and I see in an A24 banner at the beginning of a trailer it’s like, “okay, I’m gonna sit down and I’m gonna watch this trailer.” They’re just producing such good content.

Colin Bowman
I just enjoy movies but here’s a funny story. I was never a fan of James Spader. I don’t know whether that’s because of those kid movies, teen movies and he was just obnoxious. Somehow that scarred my brain but he just wasn’t my taste. Then along came the Blacklist on TV and I’m a huge fan of James Spader now, what an amazing TV show and what an amazing actor. People come up to me and say “I hate this movie” or “I hate that movie.” I’m like, “well, what age were you when you saw it?” They’ll tell me and I’ll go, “go back and watch that again.” Your tastes change; your tastes for food, clothes, fashion and believe me, for movies as well. I don’t think there are bad movies, I just think there are different tastes. When I see people really ripping into movies and saying how terrible they are I’m like “what you mean is you just don’t like it, it’s not to your taste.” The movie probably did have some redeeming qualities, apart from Split. Split didn’t have any redeeming qualities.

David Read
Well, Edward would certainly appreciate you.

Colin Bowman
Yes. I love all that as well. I remember I hadn’t thought much about Stargate for a long time. I was shooting a pilot for a show that never came to fruition and we were in LCW props in Los Angeles. They’re a big, massive prop house that everyone apparently goes to, they have gravestones from Hocus Pocus and stuff. I was over looking at the “this is familiar, this familiar” and they’re like, “yeah, that’s the blood machine from Cabin in the Woods” and I was like, “oh my god, it is. This is amazing.” Next to that is Balthazar’s car from Sorcerer’s Apprentice and then there’s this big tarpaulin and I can see some little hieroglyphics on a corner. I’m like, “what is this?” and they’re like, “tada, this is the pyramid ship, studio scale, from Stargate.”

David Read
The one that’s like 15 feet tall.

Colin Bowman
Oh yeah, massive thing. It was just in there and they couldn’t really tell me why it was there or what it was doing.

David Read
The pyramid ship’s made its rounds in a couple of places. The top was missing for a while. It’s beginning to become legend, I’m glad that it’s somewhere safe.

Colin Bowman
I don’t know if it’s still there, we’re going back over 10 years ago for that as well. So Stargate, I liked the movie. SG-1 was hard for me to keep up with just with my schedule with the wrestling and traveling, being half based in the UK and half based here. Then not actually knowing where it was on because I am sure I didn’t have Showtime here. If I’m not mistaken, Britain showed episodes ahead of the US.

David Read
Sky for a while was doing that, for a few seasons.

David Read
It’s awesome when you have found a partner who engages with a passion as much as you do.

Colin Bowman
So you never knew what was going on. It always gave me Doctor Who vibes but with a better budget. I love Doctor Who but I always got that kind of like “where are we ending up today?” My wife’s a huge fan, she was so excited when I told her we’re doing Stargate stuff. In fact, I’m pretty sure this mirror is about to end up in the house. Her pantheon really is Alien, then Stargate will be above that, but it will be below Dune and Star Trek. See I say [Doon] because it’s not [June] apparently as I say in my English accent, it’s [Doon]. My house is filled with books and memorabilia, she absolutely loves that.

Colin Bowman
I have a four bedroom house and it may as well be a half bedroom studio with the amount of room that’s left for us to actually read in. People walk into our house and are like, “this is a museum.”

David Read
Exactly. You don’t have your man cave of stuff, you need to keep the marriage intact.

Colin Bowman
Well, no, the whole house is a man and woman cave. Everyone will come in and go “this is a museum” and she’ll go “wait till you see upstairs, all my stuff.”. The bedroom’s ridiculous now, there’s just no room to move. In theory it’s great, but really you’re doubling the amount of stuff, particularly when you’re having to send stuff back on pallets from every comic con or convention you go to.

David Read
And your 18 year old eventually gets to deal with it so that’s the other thing.

Colin Bowman
Fortunately, he’s more into sports but he’s very passionate about Transformers and Indiana Jones and Star Wars. It’s the things that we connected with. Transformers is our thing because with him being born in 2004 all those movies came at the age for him to go. Me and him just had the boys night to go and see the latest one, just love that. You do pass everything on down to your kids, they’re like sponges.

David Read
Absolutely. In one way or another it’s going to form a part of their identity. Colin, are there any other properties you’re hoping to acquire to make merchandise for in the near future? What would you like us to know about in terms of what’s going to be happening? Anything else we should know before we wrap this up?

Colin Bowman
Like the earlier thing, I don’t like to talk about what we’re acquiring. The three new IPs that we have that we took to San Diego were obviously Stargate, Stranger Things. Stranger Things is not normally something that we would do. We take things that are older but Stranger Things has that feel and appeal to the generations we generally work with.

David Read
It’s a nostalgia show, it’s for your audience.

Colin Bowman
I get nostalgic. We had the Demodog and the Demogorgon at the show and they were amazing. I was blown away by the world wide knowledge of Stranger Things. I think we deal with every country in the world at Comic Con and every single one of them knew Stranger Things. In my mind, I was just, “oh, this is Netflix.” It had a huge appeal.

David Read
Before we move onto the next one I remember the original trailer coming out almost 10 years ago at this point. I remember just being like, “this is gonna be a hit, this is gonna be a big deal.” Lo and behold, you know. Apologies, go ahead.

Colin Bowman
I didn’t know anything about Stranger Things really but my son kept nagging me. I don’t know how old it is, is it eight, nine years now?

David Read
It’s been a while. Yeah.

Colin Bowman
He was young and he’s like “yeah it’s this show” and I’m like, “oh , great, you find a show you like.” He goes “you’ve got to watch it with me, you’ve got to watch it with me.” I started watching it and then I was thinking, “should I be letting him watch this?”

David Read
Right. It’s pretty darn dark.

Colin Bowman
He’s like, “No, all the kids at school are watching it.”

David Read
Seven years now.

Colin Bowman
Yeah. I don’t want to be the one that says “you can’t watch it” but wow. Then I got hooked but this really wasn’t for kids.

David Read
No it wasn’t.

Colin Bowman
Robocop was one of my favorite, crazy movies from 80s, 90s, roundabout there. This first statue from that is pretty special, looks amazing. We didn’t have him painted at Comic Con. I’ve just seen the first pictures, literally before we came on air, of it painted. I’m just completely blown away by how this thing looks and the detail. As for anything else, I know it’s a cliche but watch this space. Head over to the website at hollywood-collectibles.com, I know you have the thing for it. At the bottom there’s a little thing that says put your email in and just sign up for our mailing list. Normally, that’s terrifying, people don’t like it. I promise you this, we don’t send out 20 emails a month, we don’t have time actually, like how other companies do. I’m not in the spam mail business, I’m in the business of selling our products. Most of the time you won’t here for us for a couple of months. If we don’t have anything new to announce, we’re not going to “oh, the weather was lovely here, blah, blah, blah.” That’s literally what will happen. We send out an email that will have “this is the new thing, here’s the price, click the link to buy it at the bottom.” We’ll probably have a couple of other things that will be related to it and then that’s it, you don’t hear from us again. You can go on, place your order, pick your payment plan. If you don’t see a payment plan that suits you you can message me and we can work with you and see what we can do. That’s what it is, I want as many people to have our products as possible. Bearing in mind how few of them there are, these do not end up in the bargain bin at dollar store.

David Read
It’s a limited release.

Colin Bowman
There’s also an exclusive. Usually there’s an exclusive and a regular version. People are always like “but they’re both the same price.” I’m like “yeah, because the exclusive you can only buy exclusively from us. That’s a gift for you, the little extra added on as a gift for you, trusting us and coming to us directly.” We do have dealers out there that sell our products but that marketplace has dwindled as time goes on because there aren’t that many dealers. It’s a sad thing. Comic book stores don’t really know what to add in anymore, most of them can’t afford to carry the big $400, $500 statues. They’ve got Funko Pops for that and they’ve got action figures. That’s a lot easier. Statues take a lot of real estate and you’ve got to turn them over quickly and you might not do that because you’re just waiting for the one person to walk in “ah, I’ve got to have that.” That’s why we do the regular and the exclusive, I just want to work with people and make sure they get the best products, they enjoy it and no problems.

David Read
Colin, I really appreciate you sharing your company with us and your plans for Stargate and your love of these franchises. It means a lot to me to have you on. I am looking forward to watching your Stargate inventory grow and I’m looking forward to you making me a customer. I’m really looking forward to a lot of these pieces that you have coming along.

Colin Bowman
I appreciate being given the opportunity to come on and talk about it. It’s been a pleasure.

David Read
Absolutely sir. Thank you so much for your time. My thanks once again to Colin Bowman for joining me in this episode of Dial the Gate. If you want to check out the Hollywood Collectibles website, visit www.hollywood-collectibles.com. There is also a link in the description below. Thanks so much to my moderating team, Sommer, Tracy, Jeremy, Antony, Rhys. They’re the ones who continue to make this job possible for me while I’m doing my job on the front end, they help me out on the back end. My Producer Linda “GateGabber” Furey, thanks again Linda for your content for this episode. She did a lot of the work in making this possible; connecting me with Colin and providing all of her content to share from San Diego Comic Con. Thanks to Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb, he keeps dialthegate.com up and running. Keep it there for the complete list of shows that are planned for the rest of season three. That’s what we’ve got. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. I appreciate you tuning in and we’ll see you on the other side.