Ep. 1288: Where we put our toys on ice

-Oh, my God. Everyone is back. You've tuned in to the 404 Show on CNET on this Thursday, June 20th. My name is Jeff Bakalar. -I am Justin Yu. -I'm Bridget Carey. -And I'm Ariel Nuñez. -That is right. We got this foursome back together and there's no looking back. Oh, my God, Justin. Welcome back, buddy. -Yes. Thank you. -I love you, man. -Oh, I love you too, buddy. -That's awesome. -Good to be back. -It's so good. -How's the first half of the week been? -It's been fine. -Yes. -You know. Missed you. -Yes. -We wanna kiss you. -We both got a little bit of color and we're both in L.A. at the same time. -Yes. I don't think we both got color. -No? -I think all that color is on your side of the table. -I got a little dark out on the beach. -Look at this guy. -Pretty much the entire time. -Yes. -Do I look a lot darker? -You do. -Yes. -Not really on camera, doesn't really reflect on camera, but in person. -You got that. It's like this beautiful olive skin almost. -Thank you. Thank you. -That I just wanna tenderly kiss. -Yes. -I got a little burnt in places on my body that I can't show you. -That's fine. You show me after the show. -Yes, yes. Later. -I'll show all of you. -On the post show. -And then we have Bridget Carey here. -As pale as ever. -No. I've got you beaten the pale department, sister. -White-Off right now. -There's no technology that can handle that. And then you know we're all here and Ariel's here. It's like the family, the band is back together. -Yes. It's like Golden Oreo in here. -Golden Oreo. Yes. -The yellow, the white. -I feel just racist kind of endorsing that phrase. So I was in San Francisco. -Yes. -I mean before we get into the-- we have to talk about that first and foremost but there's a lot of stuff to talk about. We're gonna talk a little bit about Comic-Con, we're gonna talk about the Xbox news yesterday. We're gonna talk about some gifts, some other fun stuff. But first things first, Mexican food. -Yes. -I'm in San Francisco, lovely city. You know how much I love San Francisco. It's a great freaking town. -Yes. I love it. Me and Ariel are from there. -Yes. -So we have strong ties. -So our manager, the woman who oversees the 404 Show, Bonnie. -Yes. -Apparently you and her conspired. -Yes. -So can you explain that? -Well, so over the weekend she sent me an email that was like oh, you know, I'm going to take Mark and Jeff. -Right. -You guys were there for E3 but then took a trip up to San Francisco-- -Yes. -From L.A. -Right. -To go visit the office that we have there. -That is correct. -And she was like yes, you know, Mark and Jeff are gonna be in. I wanna take them to a good Mexican restaurant for lunch. -Right. -You know a good spot in the area? -Right. -And so I gave her 3 options. Ariel, I guess I'll tell you since you're the only one that will know what I'm talking about. -Yes. -So number 1 was Puerto Alegre, right? -Yes. -They're famous for their shredded beef, crispy tacos. -Right. -And their margarita is really good. Second one was Pancho Villa which has the famous 3-meat burrito, I bet with shrimp, chicken, and beef all in the same burrito. -Yes. -What? -That was amazing, yes. -Yes. -And then the third option was El Farolito, which I felt like was the best go-to spot if it was a late night thing, you know, if you're gonna go to a bar. -So also but how did you arrive at the one we did? -So I figured in the first one, Puerto Alegre is the easiest one to get to off of the public transportation there. -Right. -It's called BART. -And we took a cab. -Since you guys were going, oh okay, so if you took a cab, it doesn't matter. You'll go anywhere. -Yes. -But it turns out that you guys apparently went to Puerto Alegre, choice number 1, right? -Yes. -Uno. -Uno. -Yes. -Is how they say it there. -I believe so. -No, dude, and it was great. I loved it. -You loved it. -I did. -How did it compare to your favorite burrito or taco? -So I didn't get a burrito, but I got they're known for their crispy tacos. -Yes. -And it was freaking delicious. -Yes. -It really was. -I'm glad to hear that. -And I loved every second of it and I had-- -Oh, I feel like there's a butt fest coming. -Yes. -I bet you'll give me a butt. I don't wanna hear it. -Mark had a really good meal as well. Bonnie had. We went out with Parker but everyone's food was delicious. The margaritas were great. -Yes. -The atmosphere was very authentic. Not really authentic but you know what I'm saying. -Yes, right. -It was fun. Weather was just complemented by the gorgeous breeze coming off that bay. -Yes. -Oh, my goodness gracious. -Yes. -But-- -No, no, no, no. I don't wanna hear it. -There's no-- look. What I'm going to say right now is what I've maintained this entire time. -If you say that any burrito you get is gonna be the same as any other burrito. -No, no, no. -I would've freak out-- -It's not because I didn't have a burrito and I was going to get one, but I thought I needed to-- if I was gonna get a burrito, I needed to get one from like a truck or something like that. Oh, my God. You hear those knuckles? -Yes. -All I'm saying-- -Yes. -Okay. I don't care you got them fitted. -Go ahead. -All I'm saying is that now I don't think I can get exact-- I don't think I could totally match it-- -Yes. -But I think I could come pretty damn close. -You mean make it? -No. -New York, right? -No, not even New York in showing you a place that could come close to that. -That-- -Because I've had it. -This illustrates how-- -Like a chili-- -No. Not at all. I'm just saying, dude, I've had food that good before and I'm not saying it wasn't because I have. And I'm not saying it wasn't bad. It was freaking great. -Yes. -And I was super psyched the whole time. Smile on my face, dude. Ear to freaking ear. I loved it. -Right. You'd loved it. -But I could come close to matching it. -No, you can't. -Fine. Fine, fine, fine. You brought me-- what was it called? -Puerto Alegre. -Puerto Alegre. -Yes. -Right? I'll bring you to a place where the food is nearly as good. -Okay. -Okay? And that's what I'm gonna do. And as soon as you do it-- -I guess I can't say it until I've had-- -Right. Exactly. -The food in-- -And now being a person who has had both the left and right coast. -Right. -Mexican food I'm telling you now. -Right. -It's fantastic, but I'm gonna match it. -But okay. The biggest thing is it has to be a burrito. -Right. -You didn't have a burrito. -I didn't have a burrito, so you know maybe mistakes are made. Look. I was in bad shape on Thursday in San Francisco. -Right. -Okay? Mark, Eric, and myself, we were out really late on Wednesday. -Yes. -We were working on like I don't know, 150 minutes of sleep. -Right. -Like it was bad. Okay? -Right. -So I was a mess. I walked into that poor office. I'm a mess. I've got like sunglasses on. I had it on. It was pathetic. -Yes. -I looked like dog shit. -Okay. -Okay? So I was not in the right frame of mind to really be outgoing and be like, oh no we gotta go get a burrito. -Right. -Bonnie is like I'm taking you to this Mexican place that Justin recommended. I was like oh all right. So he's got the recommendation. -So you're saying you went in with a stacked deck. You weren't even ready-- -Oh, no. -Your palette wasn't even ready to try-- -It was. -Something of that caliber. -I freaking made it ready. -You were probably chewing gum at the same time. -No. -Your opinion is glib. -No, it's not. No. Don't say glib. -I don't believe that. -Dude, it was great. -When you weren't talking about how good Mexican food in California is, first you have to talk about the amount of Mexicans that are in California. -Yes. There is. Okay. -You have if you found like the one Mexican person in New Jersey that opened up a taqueria. -You know what I'm curious about? -And that's probably good. -You know what I'm curious about? -But there are thousands of people collaborating on the taste of these taquerias in San Francisco. -SF is really north. -Right? -It's really up there. -I know but that's a lot of immigrants. -Okay. It's not San Diego. -And they all make delicious food. -I understand. There's a lot of Mexicans in Central New Jersey. -Second thing you got-- -There are, man. There really are. -You gotta talk about is the freshness of the ingredients that come from-- -It's delicious. -California. -Tomatoes were 100 percent. -The produce there produces the best guacamole you've ever tasted. -I love it. -Right? -It was great. Dude, again, if I said one negative thing about this restaurant I know as you should be. -You know-- -If there could be more than one great steak restaurant, there could be more than one great burrito. -You're right. I think steaks are kind of easy to do once you like put it in butter. -I was making just a general example. -No, I know what you're saying. -Like in Miami, everyone does the same exact talk with Cuban food. -Cuban food. -Yes. -Sure. Sure. -I wished I was a part of this like the planning because Papalote wasn't mentioned which I think is the best Mexican food in San Francisco. -Yes. -And he's my friend. The owner is my friend. He would've took care of you guys. -Yes. -You guys would've had probably the best meal in San Francisco. -Of your life. -Probably of your life. -Papalote's salsa is really good. -Yes. -I also go there if I ever want a mole burrito. -Yes. -All the mole burritos which are like. -Look. -Chocolate sauce inside of it. -Yes. I'm gonna go back to San Francisco just to go to Papalote. -Yes. -That's what I'm gonna do. It's a must. It's a buy. It's a definite buy. -And in New Jersey you don't get naked guys coming up to you and showing you you're trying to tell you while you're eating lunch. -You're damn straight we don't. -Which is the best part of eating in San Francisco. -So that happened, right? That crazy video made its rounds on the internet and lo and behold the BART station that we used to go back to the office after eating at the restaurant was the same place. -Yes. -And it was funny because like we were there and Bonnie went up to the person behind the glass. -Yes. -And she was almost like is this the place? -Yes. -Is this the place? -She's like taking photos. -Yes. -Postcards in the BART Station. -There's like a puddle over there like oh, that's probably from him. Yes. -I'm surprised that Bonnie even was curious about it because I feel like just like in New York people in San Francisco are very used to weirdos roaming the city. -Yes. -Right? Like there's a lot of transients. -Sure. -They're just scary people that walk around. -It wasn't that scary. -We're talking about this YouTube video and it was in the subway station in San Francisco. -Right. -All of a sudden-- -How long ago did it happen? -A week ago. -It's like a week ago. -Yes. -And this naked guy emerges, right? He's like totally naked. -Yes. -And he's kind of spitting on people. -Is he spitting on people? -Yes. He was like peeing in a corner and he was threatening people with his crotch and stuff. -Yes. He's like fear this. -Yes. -That sounded like yes. -He's humping the ground. -Yes. -He's also doing acrobatics because I think he was an ex-clown. -He was doing some sick like sick acrobats. -Yes. -Like jump, like doing like 180s and what not. -Yes. It was pretty cool. -Flips. He's doing McTwists. -Stuffs that would make Mark look really-- -Yes, absolutely. -So yes. And then he was terrorizing people but what was most mind-blowing to me about that video was that no one stepped in to help. -Well, no. There was that one big dude who came in and started like-- -Kind of but he was a security guard. -Kicked him a little bit. -That was sort of his job. Yes and that was funny like one guy just came in and made sure he was still alive-- -Right. -When he was on the ground at the end. -Yes. -But no one really did anything about it and I was wondering why nobody, no one pulled like a United 93, like how come no one just grab him and was like you can't do this. -People wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. -I gotta step away. -We do not use United 93 as a verb. -No. I'm just saying nobody should've a good Samaritan than this guy. -Oh, my-- yes. That is the preferred nomenclature. -Right? How come no one did that? If we were there, we would've definitely done something about it. -I mean-- -Because you don't know-- -I don't know, man. -That guy-- -If they're gonna do or-- -If that was-- -If he's sick or-- -Yes, that's true. -You know what if he-- -He was definitely on some kind of-- -Like it would give him rabies-- -He was like rabid is like you know he was freaking who knows. -Yes. -And he's naked, right? So he's not-- -It accidentally touched you. -Not a lot to grab onto. -Well, I mean yes. There's not a lot-- besides he's freaking gigantic hair. -Right. -You know. I don't-- it was a weird sort of thing. -The people were suspecting that he was on PCP too because he was really strong, so I don't know. Maybe you don't wanna mess with-- -He was kind of jacked too like you know. I would love to have seen like Mark take him down. -Yes. -You know and some sort of naked kung fu battle. -Right. -And Mark will have just taken his clothes off too for some reason. -Just for the aesthetic. -It'd be fair. -Yes. -He's like I'm gonna make sure this is a fair fight. -Yes. -But we got to see that so that was you know I guess a weird little fun fact. -Oh, man. -Yes. -So speaking of Mexican food really quick while we're on the topic. -Sure. -I had some Mexican snacks in Orange County. -Okay. -That was amazing and I can only ever get this while I'm in California. Have you guys heard of tostilocos? -No. -No. -Oh, my gosh. You guys are gonna love it-- -Sounds crazy. -Let me describe this for you. -Yes, please. -So going to any like Mexican deli or restaurant, you ask for a tostilocos so this is what they do, right? I go to a rack and they'll pull off a bag of Tostitos, right, Salsa Verde flavor Tostitos. They'll cut that bag open horizontally, right? So it's like a bowl of chips. -Yes. -Then they chop up a bunch of Jicama. You guys know what Jicama is, right? -No, would you refresh my memory? -Like a vegetable like a white vegetable. Doesn't really taste like anything that's more for a crunch, right? -Okay. -So they chop up a bunch of Jicama, they chop up a bunch of cucumber and put that into it, right? Then they top that with peanuts then on top of that, they put pickled pigskin. Then on top of that, they sprinkle it with tamarind candies. -Yes. -Then they put chamoy hot sauce and lime juice on top of that. -I'm into that. -And then they give you a fork and you eat it. -I'm into that. -Like the best nachos you've ever had. -Yes, I'm into that. -Well, the pickled skin thing, I could maybe go without. -No, no, no, no. I want that. -Some people, some vegetarians don't want the pickled skin. You can get it without that. -For me, I love a good pig-related item, but I've never had a pickled skin. -I think you'll like it. -How come-- -Like a fried-- here. Check it out. This is what it is right here. -How come I'm not eating it right now? -With all the chips underneath it. -Oh, my Jesus. -It's the best thing you've ever had. -Oh, get me into that bag. -Yes. -I just wanna stare at that. -So I had a couple of those. -Wow. -Amazing. -Yes, that looks really good, man. -That does look-- -I'm starving now. -I know. Me too. -I'm so hungry. -Mexican food. -Oh, okay. All right. Let's stop with the food now. Okay. So I think we're all caught up then, right? -Oh, also on the way there on the airplane I saw a documentary on my computer that I think you've seen as well. It's called Sound City. -Oh, yes. Great. -Great movie. -Yes. -It's about a recording studio in Van Nuys that opened up in the late 60's I think. -Right. -And all these famous albums have been recorded there. -Yes. Dave Grohl. -Yes. I'd say it's on Dave Grohl-- -Yes. -Yes. Nevermind was recorded there. -Right. -A bunch of Fleetwood Mac albums, Rick Springfield and stuff. -Pinkerton by Weezer was recorded there. -It sure was. Yes. -I didn't realize that but it's a great documentary. -And now it's gone, right? -No, well, the Sound City is done, but Dave Grohl bought the console-- -The Neve. -And moved it. Freaking ass, man. He's just like oh, I've got so much freaking money and he took the Neve console which there's only like 6 of them in the world. -Right. -And this was the only one that was handmade I think. -Right and they or custom made-- -Right. -Perhaps and they picked it up in sections and they freaking move it into his home studio. -Yes. -And that's where the Foo records all their stuff. -God bless him. -I mean he's Dave Grohl. He can do that. -Really cool. -He can get away with that. -It could do no harm in my eyes, so-- -It was pretty good. -Sound City. -Sound City, check it out. -I recommend it. Yes. -Okay. I'm trying to figure out anything else we need to wrap up before we move on to some other stories. Is that all like the housekeeping we're involved in? -Yes. I guess so. -Everyone caught up? Everyone-- -How was your trip to L.A.? -It was good. -Oh, I left you a gift. -Oh, my God. Right. So yes. And this sort of parlays into the Comic-Con conversation. So Justin knows I'm like a huge fan of The Maxx, that Image comic book character from the 90's. -Yes. -I come back to my desk on Monday and lo and behold, bam. -Right. -Someone bought me a Maxx action figure. -Man. -That's nice. -[unk]. -This is from-- yes, seriously. This is from 96. Sam Kieth is the artist behind The Maxx. -Yes. -I actually have a Batman sculpture inspired by Sam Kieth. -Right. -And so this is him, this is Mr. Maxx right here. -Yes. -Very cool. -So what's-- -It's like a Grimace from McDonald's-- -It's when-- -It's like crazy, yes. -Well, so like The Maxx is a really-- he's a weird character like you know there's a lot of controversy around him. He's only like the-- he's probably the imagination of the girl that's in the comic book too, Julie, but anyway it's so awesome and it's funny because I got one of these a couple of years ago, but I have these little guys, these little white guys are called Isz. -Yes. -And I have one with the black Isz-- -Right. -Whatever it is. -Yes. -This is sick, man. -Yes. -Thank you for doing that. Tell me how you got it? -Sure. Oh well, so when you were gone over the weekend, I went to a sidewalk sale. One of my buddies was having a sidewalk sale to get rid of his old stuff and along with a bunch of clothes and sports equipment, old stuff, he also had this and another Spawn toy that I didn't recognize, but right when I saw that, I thought about you. -Oh. -So he actually gave that to me because he didn't think it was worth any money, come to find out it's worth 60 bucks. -It's worth around 60 dollars. -Didn't realize that before I gave it to you then he kind of want it back. -Here you go, bud. Well, I have one. Do you want it back? -No, no, no. You should maybe open one. -No. The other one is open. -The other one-- -So this one I'll keep this close. -Yes. -Put that in ice. -Keep this one closed. That's nice. Keep this on ice. Let is simmer. -Yes. -Let is simmer. I like it. Well, thanks, man. This means a lot. I appreciate it. -You're welcome. I look forward to whatever gift you're gonna give me soon. -Yes. I know. Whatever free gift. -Yes. -Well, the fact that we have these toys here really, you know, sort of leads very nicely into Comic-Con which is next month. -Yes. -You and I are gonna be out there and released today or not released today but you know the big thing and it was our first Comic-Con, I didn't know much about it. The big thing at Comic-Con is the exclusive toys that are at Comic-Con. -Yes. -You can only buy certain toys that have these limited Comic-Con, you know, production runs. -Yes. -And I believe we found a post that's compiling what's gonna be exclusive over at Comic-Con in San Diego when we head out there next month. -Yes. -I didn't realize so many amazing things were exclusives. I have to write you guys a check. -Yes. Bridget brought her check book. -Yes. Seriously. -Seriously. Bring your-- we'll take care of you. You know what? We'll lay it out. You just get us back. -Yes. -All right. We'll lay it out. Don't you worry about a thing. Seriously. -I'm ready. -Whatever you want. -Just make it out to my buddy. His name is cash. -Yes. -And we'll have to pay someone to stand in line for you. -Yes. For sure. -I don't know if we'll be able to do that. -Can we go through some of these exclusive Comic-Con-- -Yes. -Toys because these are freaking sick. -Last year, their cool thing that everyone was waiting in line for was the Street Fighter Hello Kitty Dolls. -Right. -Do you remember that? They had like-- -There was-- -Chun Li I believe and a Blanka that was all Hello Kitty. -There was that. There was the portal gun. -Yes. That was a good one. -Remember the NECA portal gun. -Yes. -NECA has a few exclusives this year, but what is standing out for you amongst the exclusives this year? -I really like this Game of Thrones Stark Shield. -I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna get it. -This is really cool. -Family Stark, the fallen family. I'm gonna get it. -Yes. This is only 30 bucks so what's really cool is that all the limited stuff isn't expensive. -Some of them are. -Some of them are. It depends on what style. Like I think the portal gun was like 100 something-- -Yes. Portal gun was a buck fifty I think. -But yes. This was only $30. It's gonna be at the Dark Horse booth if you're there, but-- -How big do you think that is? -Probably not that big. -You think it's just like the size of a quarter. -It's not life size. -You think that's just the size of a quarter or are we talking like dinner plate? -I don't know. I have no idea. -It's probably nice enough to hang up. Let's hope. -Yes. I hope so because I really want the Stark Shield. -Yes. -Right above a fireplace. -Yes. Absolutely. -I feel like a lot of people that go to Comic-Con just spent the entire time waiting in line. Remember like around the perimeter of the convention center where it's held in? Last year when we were there, we would just see people standing in line. -Yes. -And we would ask them like what they're in line for and they're like oh, we're waiting for 2 days for this poster. -I'm like what? -What? -It's just like really simple things, you know, but-- -Where are you from? They're like Alabama. -Yes, yes. -Oh, my God. You've wasted your life away. -Yes. -No, that bust of Admiral Ackbar. -Yes? You're into that? -That is a unique one. -Can we scroll down to that? Oh, no. That's not-- I don't think there's a bust, there's a Boba Fett bust. -No, there's-- -Oh, here's the Admiral Ackbar Magnitude Mini Bust. -Oh, there is. Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. Oh, my God. Look at that? How much is that going for? -Buck seventy five. -See? I don't know about buck seventy five for just a bust. -Yes. -I pay most like $200 for things like this. -Yes? -Yes. Because it's art work. It's awesome. -It's cool. -You put it on the bookshelf. It's just-- -Well, how about this? Okay. So now that you've seen to have easily rationalized paying $200 for an Admiral Ackbar bust, Justin, can you pull up under the link in the thing there that where it says Heath Ledger in the rundown there? There's something that I've been courting for many, many months and it's made by Hot Toys, is the company that puts these together. They do very, very high-end action figures. Have you burrowed that up yet? -Yes. -Can we switch to the screen, Ariel? There is a Joker, they call the Joker 2.0. It's Heath Ledger's Joker. -Yes. -And it comes with all these chotskies, all these freaking awesome like you know he's got like the knife coming out of the shoe, the what's it called, the bomb detonator from the boats, from the Dark Knight? -Wow. -Oh, my God. -I'm obsessed with this thing. It's $275. It's sold out. I'm probably gonna have to pay a little bit of a premium if I wanna get my hands on this. Can you guys right here now like help me rationalize spending that much money on a freaking Joker statue? -I'll look at the details-- -The details are so good. -And the texture on the different articles of clothing he's wearing like a vest. -It looks like it's moving. Oh. -It looks like it's him. -Oh my-- -It looks crazy. -Yes. It is like a photograph. -The makeup. -I mean come on. -This is crazy. -It's that smirk. They captured that smirk so freaking well. There's also an unbelievable Jack Nicholson version of it. They got 2 of them that they're putting together, and I really want one of those because he is still to me is more iconic as the Joker. -Yes. -This was a fascinatingly dark and terrifying version of the Joker, but I still have this affinity for Jack-- -How can you not? -Right. Yes. -Yes. -The pencil, I can't believe it. -It's amazing-- -I was just gonna say is that a pencil? -Like how big do you want that? -It comes with a pencil. -Don't you just want and it's gone. Come on. That's amazing. -Yes. -I want this so bad. -So-- -Can I return The Maxx? -I'll find this one for you. -I'm kidding. I love this, Jus. This is great. -Have you seen what the resale is at like right now on eBay for this? -It's not that big. You can get one for like $2.80 on eBay. -Oh, really? Okay. -So I might just plunk down and do it. -Just get it, man. Just get it. -I'm like hoping-- -Yes, yes. -You are totally. How come you're not in all red, dude? You should totally be doing that with an evil moustache. -I'm a total enabler, man. If someone wants something, I will always tell them just get it. -If it's bothering you for a long time, that's when you know you have to get it to make yourself happy. -For sure. -If you can walk away and you're like oh, okay, you know. -Yes. -That's why I judge things and of course I run into problems when they're sold out later, but-- -Yes. Enjoy your bachelorhood after this. -Yes, but then I know right. The thing is and we've talked about this before and this all leads into this really nerdy I love this conversation. I don't have the proper means to display all this groovy stuff. -Yes. -Okay, but in time you will. See, this is my problem. I went crazy wanting the hovercraft, the hoverboard. -Sure. -From Back to the Future. -You got it. -Right. -I didn't have a great place to put it. -How much was that, a buck fifty, right? -No. That was like $200 I think -Holy schnikes. Okay. -I forgot. The money didn't even matter to me. I was so happy. Yes. -Yes. -But yes. Like I'm trying to make a little like area in my apartment. My God, this kind of looks good. It even makes sound when you move it. It's amazing. -Oh, that's sick. -Yes. -Yes, we play with that a little bit last year at Comic-Con. -Oh, but it's one of those things where like you know what? You'll find a place to put it later. -Yes. Is that what is just gonna come down to? Am I just gonna find a place like you know it's funny because I was at the CNET office in San Francisco and across from Donald Bell's massive area that he hangs out in because when was the last time you're at that-- -I haven't been there for a while. -It's a freaking ghost town, dude. You could do cartwheels for miles. No one is around. Here we have like a freaking overpopulation issue. -Yes. -Out there, you wanna move back out there, man? -I've been trying to get you to say that for 5 years, seriously. -I loved it out there. -If you want to, I'm down. -San Jose is just 40 minutes away. I'll become a Sharks fan. So across from his cube area-- -There's a lot of action figures, right? -No, but there's like all the awards that CNET's won over the years like all these whatever awards. They just have this amazing, you know, glass display case-- -Right. -For it, and I'm like man, get rid of those awards. I wanna put my action figures on that thing. -I don't wanna put it in glass because then no one can get close enough to it. I don't wanna be like a store, you know. -Yes. -I'm all about just letting it be. Just let it breathe. -Yes? -Yes. -What do you think? -I don't know. You're quickly approaching 40-year-old virgin status, right? -You think so. -You're gonna need a place to sit to look at it and then you're gonna be like I'm gonna buy this bean bag chair. -No, no, no, no, no. -I felt bad about that movie because-- -I'm gonna look at my video games in here too. -Time out. -And you're basically becoming the 40-year-old virgin. -No, but I don't think-- -Nothing is wrong with that, but when I saw that movie I was like nothing is wrong with it. -You're one that apartment-- -That thing, that again. -Its like-- -Bunks of porn. -His apartment was over the top. His apartment looked like a KB Toy store. -Yes. -Okay? Remember those places? -Yes. -I would have a much more tasteful display I think with my man, Maxx, right here. -Yes. -Just hanging out. -You know what about all this animatronic dolls and these dogs that I have in here? -No, no, no. Come on. You think it's cool, right? -Yes. It is cool. Yes. -And I still and I remember. I like I asked the 404 world for help on this and people were like oh, you can build one and no one ever-- I never really found that answer. Ikea has a few, but there's not enough real estate for the amount of junk I have. -I had a one friend that did it in a really classy way and he installed shelving right below the ceiling. You know that was like kind of lining the ceiling. -Yes. -Yes. -So that was really nice though. That was like a very classy way to do it because then you raise them up so no one can touch it. -Super Handy Manny though. I'm not-- -Right, you could do-- -Do I look like a guy who gets my hands dirty with that sort of stuff? -I mean if you just got those floating shelves from Ikea you could do it this way too, right? -Yes, but something about the whole thing wants me to preserve it in glass so it doesn't get dusty. -Yes. I think you-- -Get a little dust, feather duster. -No, but then I'm gonna like break Heath Ledger's hand off and I'm gonna freak out. -Yes. -And I can't have that. -Do you have any friends that are like sneaker collectors because when you talk about this, I have a couple of friends that come to mind because they collect that kind of thing. -I have friends who used to collect them, yes. -Yes. And they do the same thing. They put them in glass cases. You can buy one of those. -I still gotta look, man. -Yes. -It's time for me to treat Jeff, right? It's time for me to treat myself. -Spoil yourself. -Right? -Yes. -Spoil yourself. You've been a good boy. -Yes. -Spoil yourself. -I would talk to Stacy about it first. Maybe you can have like a nice little corner for yourself. -Yes. -And that will be all of your stuff in one corner. -Because this is so funny because it's literally been 1 year since I got on this train, right? -Yes. -And I kept saying I got back from Comic-Con, I bought her that exclusive Twilight Zone thing, remember? She freaked out about that and meanwhile it's still on her freaking bookshelf. -Yes. -You know wasting away like no one can see it and I got it on and I'm like, "Stace, we gotta get some sort of display for all of this cool stuff we have," right? -Right. -And she's like oh, yes, that's a great idea. Past forward 11 months and that thing has moved nowhere. -Well first you need to get the stuff. -I have plenty of stuff. -Oh, you have stuff to put in the glass? -I've plenty of video games stuff, stuff I bought last year as well. -Yes. -You know. I don't know. What else on this list am I gonna buy though is what I wanna know. -I like those girl action figures. -I do too. -Which ones? The Super Best Friends. -The ones you're on right now. -Yes. -The Super Best Friends. -Yes, I kind of dig them. -That's cool. -Kind of dig those. I'll tell you what I don't dig. No F's are given about freaking DJ My Little Pony. -Yes. -I worry, man. -My Little Pony. -What the hell? -You are not selling me on that. -They're not even limited. They didn't say the amount they would produce. -Yes. It's just like they'll be plenty. -20 million, don't worry. -We made 20 million. Go down to 14, go down to 14 and see Adam West Batusi, is that-- am I saying that right? There it is. -Oh, here we go. -The Batman Batusi-- why can't I say it. It's like the old school Adam West Batman figure. -Yes. -I'm digging that. I might pick that up. -Oh, that's cool. -30 bucks. -Like and a little TV here. -That'll be from Mattel. -Yes. -I'll pick that up. Man, I'm gonna need to bring an extra suitcase. -Yes. -Just for my toys. -And just bubble wrap. -Yes. Seriously. That's not a bad idea. You can do that, right? There's like a-- doesn't Fed, I believe FedEx has like a booth at Comic-Con. -No way. -Yes, yes. -No way. Really? -And you say oh my God. Look I bought this pinball machine. -Yes. -And you just bubble tape this up and send it back to New York? -That's genius. -That's really cool. -Totally. -One of these days I gotta hit this up. -It's so cool. Anyway, that's how I feel about all that stuff. -Yes. Maybe when we're there, we could do a video spot about you asking people how they display the stuff that they're gonna buy. What are they gonna do with it? -Write it down. -Yes. Do it. -Action figure preservation segment. -Yes, that's cool. -Here we go. All right. Rock and roll. -Yes. -And that's all written and taking care of. -You think funny. -No, no. It says action figure from there from there. I'll remember. All right. We gotta talk about what happened yesterday. -Oh, my God. -This is crazy. I know to my left and right, Justin and Ariel kind of out to lunch on this, but Microsoft did something really freaking epic yesterday. Going into E3, there was a big controversy, the big you know battle with Sony and Microsoft. You're paying attention? -Yes, yes. I'm looking for the story. -Okay. -Oh my God. -All right. The big battle between Microsoft and Sony, Sony after the press conference says oh, we're gonna allow used games. Microsoft says hey, we're trying to push the industry forward, maybe a little bit. -Yes. -But it just left such a bad taste in people's mouths. -Absolutely. -That Sony really all they had to do was just look over and watch Microsoft like juggle these chainsaws, you know, and just like try not to cut themselves. -Right. -And Sony really looked like the good guy just by kind of doing nothing. -Yes. They did the same thing they always did and all of a sudden everyone is cheering and hollering. -Don't get me wrong. You undercut Xbox One by $100. That's freaking awesome. -Yes. -And you also really embraced the independent development community saying you have a home on PS4. That's freaking awesome. -Yes. -I mean indie games are really, really important and it pisses me off that Microsoft just doesn't have that mentality the way Sony does. -Yes. -And that really upsets me. -Yes. -But nevertheless yesterday and it was crazy around like 3:30 something was happening. And the news like the sort of newsroom environment we have here at CNET was starting to bubble up, and I was getting word from a couple of sources, but I didn't really wanna go right away with it and then I started typing around. It's like guys something is happening, like you could sense that something is about to break. -Yes. -Something is about to happen. And lo and behold around 5 o'clock Eastern Time yesterday, the Microsoft FAQ on Xbox One updated and it was a huge sort of I guess redacted statement about what the Xbox One will be like and they said hey, we're getting rid of all the DRM. We're getting rid most of that. And you have no restrictions on used games. And that is so crazy to me. -It's amazing that they really listened and-- -This is unprecedented. -I know. It's like I mean you have a mix of the opinions on this. Some people are just jumping up and down, just excited that Microsoft made a change and others were just kind of bitter that they were thinking this to begin with and they kind of lost a little bit of their love for Microsoft and Xbox still. I don't know if that's gonna affect the sales in the holiday season. The point of the matter is that at the end of the day it's more of an even battlefield now between them and PlayStation. -Right. -And people were very confused. If I talked to people who aren't following games all the time, I think there was something like you can't play used games you know like whatever it is-- -It's very confusing. -That the message was awful and so they had to do-- I mean they had to do something to at least correct all the misunderstandings that were out there. -It's no secret. Microsoft was like there were like a 4th grader giving a book report when they were trying to explain their used games policy and the DRM policy, and I as of right now am a big believer that had they changed the way they presented this information from the start instead of it having it leak out in these really ugly sort of details, if they just made their case upfront, I think it would've been an easier sell to people. -I don't know. -That's what I think just because of the success of things like Steam, the success of things like that and making the case that says look, we want them and this is not coming from them. This is where I think they were sort of approaching. Going and saying hey, we wanna move the industry forward because let's be honest at the end of the day are you gonna be buying discs? I'm gonna be downloading games. -Yes, if they're on sale. -Right. -I don't care how. I'm gonna borrow from my friends like I'm all about-- you know what? It took me back to how I got into video games in the first place. -Right. -Rentals which you could still do in those Redbox machines, friends, and freaking discounts. And so when I saw that whole entire world crumble-- -Yes. -I was like this is already an expensive investment, $60 a game. -But that's-- -I just got turned off-- -Right. -So fast. -And I understand where you're coming from that, and we all grew up in that culture of the sharing and lending and renting and all that stuff. But why is it that games is really the only medium that is so, you know, resistive of this progress? You know what I'm saying because books, that's done. I mean books are now Kindle-ized and licensed. Music is the same way, TV, movies. I mean it's all like that now. -But with the Kindle, here's when I first heard about what Microsoft was planning on doing, I first thought of the Kindle. You can lend a book digitally to someone else. -Right. Yes. -You know so-- -Once and the whole thing-- -That like physical world, you know, still needed to be there I think. I don't know. I mean I-- -It's a really tough subject. -I like the idea of just having a virtual library of all my movies because I'm running out of space. -Right. -You know but I also like you know showing off my collection. We're talking about collections of action figures. I like collections of my books and my other things too, but I know is that can there be that happy medium where I don't feel like I have to pay full price on everything. -Right. And I wrote about that last week and I said, look, stop freaking out about what-- this is obviously before they reversed their policy, stop freaking out about the DRM. This might be okay because while this one loophole is closing, there seems to be a lot of other new kind of maybe awesome loopholes that were potentially gonna be opening with the family sharing like they were gonna let 2 people share the same games. I mean the potential for other new loopholes was kind of exciting, and I think people got way too reactionary over it. I read some vitriol stuff. People were freaking-- they were calling it disgusting and it was the worst anti-consumer thing that Microsoft's ever done and it was just like wow. Everyone, relax. Okay. Let's, I don't know. We'll hear them out for a second. And Microsoft was like look, we're getting our asses kicked in the press and they had to do this sort of knee jerk, oh, reverse it all, change it all back. And to me while I appreciate where that voice is coming from and I appreciate all that, I still wonder what it might have been like. -If they actually explained themselves better. -And made a better case for the whole thing because it wasn't all a horror story. It wasn't. They did a pissed poor pathetic job at explaining it because it all came out as this ugly news. But had they had presented the situation from the get-go in a more rational and calming light instead of kind of making it look like they were hiding these secrets, it would've changed the landscape and, you know, for me I think the internet is becoming, is-- I don't know. It proved that all the internet had to do was like freak out a little bit and that was it, and the policy got changed, and while that's a super powerful thing, it also is kind of I don't know. It's kind of dumb. -You can make anything happen-- -Because evangelical-- -As long as you complain online. -You know you become these evangelical, you know, outcriers and you go completely aped over something, and it just totally eliminates the forum for civil discourse, and no one can have a God-damn rational conversation about any of this. -Right. -It's all freaking lunatics going nuts and people just standing on their soap boxes and I don't know. I think you know it's not the worst thing that's ever happened, but I just find it a little sad. Do you understand where I'm coming from? -Do you think they should've released the actual console and let people try out the original model for used games first and then if they didn't like it and they were still getting backlashed, they can reverse it afterward, right, because it's not a hardware issue. -Well, I still was in the dark right before they announced they're reversing everything. They were still many questions that we all kind of had about a few things or it was kind of wishy-washy. So yes. You're right, Jeff. There wasn't a lot of explanation on their part and you kind of wanted to give them a chance but they just said, you know what, forget it. Let's just reverse it all. Maybe we should all blame Jimmy Fallon. I think the day before that he go on TV going, yes, the Xbox doesn't allow used games and they were-- -So like why-- -And all of a sudden someone's like Jimmy Fallon doesn't like it. We gotta change it. -But you're 100 percent right. Like who the hell declared him the authority on games. -But that made headlines-- -I know. -Over and over again. -I know. -All the headline of E3 was Sony beats Xbox and-- -This has been a really bad year for the internet's credibility. -Yes. -This has been a terrible year. You know I just-- I don't know. I think there was a way through this, okay, and I'm not just saying it for Microsoft because I'm sure Sony wanted to do something similar too. This is not me taking sides. -Oh, we all thought Sony was gonna do something similar. -Right. Exactly. And anyone who thinks this is me taking sides is a damn fool because they don't know what they're talking about. The way it works is that you have to look back at the entire industry empirically and say all right. If it's gonna go one direction, how will it affect everybody. And if it was gonna go in that DRM direction, the pricing models that we all are used to in the last generation of games would need to evolve in a way that it wouldn't affect people's wallets and such what was potentially gonna look like this drastic shock to your wallet. If they had followed the same pricing model as what you can buy a used game for like how, you know, GameSpot will sell games for cheaper and maybe just follow the depreciation of a game at, you know, like a game that's out for 4 months is not a $60 game anymore. -Things lose their value all over the place. -It's like a $35 game. To have that mentality and say okay, we need to understand where the psychology of buying video games and where a gamer you know thinks about that and lowering the price as time goes on and the value of the game depreciates, I think there was a way through that. -Yes. -In that scenario. -I'd be digital if-- -Of course. -Because if that's the reason why I would-- -And that's why Steam is so freaking popular because you know games out for a couple of months. Bam, it's like $25 for a weekend and you're rocking and rolling, and the money goes to the people who deserve it instead of these third party guys that just recycle, recycle, recycle, recycle. I'm sorry. If you really talk-- I mean you know I've heard from game developers personally saying this at the end of the day is just gonna sort of keep us in the gulch and you understand what I'm saying. It's just like musicians not getting money for stuff like that. I understand there's greedy people out there and everyone, you know, sort of makes these corporations to be the bad guys and a lot of them are, but there's still something fundamentally twisted up about this little situation. -And I'm sure the guys at GameFly are really happy they're still in business. -Oh, my God. They're freaking out. GameStop is freaking out. GameStop went from, "Oh my God, this could be the final nail on the coffin to pop some champagne. We're cool for another 8 years at least." -Yes. -It's crazy. It also makes you think and people still like I still think too many conclusions are being made. We don't know how this will all plan out. We don't know if games, you know, if developers will put some sort of stranglehold and publishers, they might be like, "Oh you know what? Well now we're gonna bring back things like season past. Now we're gonna bring back things like you know you have to have a code to play online and stuff like that." -Oh. Well, yes. That's already crossing your money when you buy used game. -And EA, I know EA said no, we're still not gonna do it in light of the news that came out yesterday. I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see how that plans out. But it's interesting, right? -Yes. -Can you appreciate that? -Do you think that the reason why people are different? They have an opinion that's different for video games is because the cost of video games is so much more than other types of media like books obviously don't cost a lot. -Right. -But music is only $12, $13 for an album. And movies what, tops 25 bucks for a new Blu-ray. Video games, it never gets that cheap for a new retail. -It's a lot of entertainment. -If you're paying more-- -But-- -You think you should have more of a right to distribute it freely? -Well, I don't know about how much you pay. I think you have to look at like Bridget was starting to say what you know the amount of if you can somehow you know measure entertainment. -Yes. -Right like for example The Last of Us is like almost a 20-hour game. -Right. -You know you can get a movie that's 2 hours. -A book takes me 20 hours to read. -Yes. It's sure too. -It's tough. It's tough. It's tough. And then you have to go into like direction cost like the amount of money it cost to put out a book is nowhere near what it cost to put out a triple A blockbuster video game. -Right. -So look, there's a weird sort of formula to all that and we just have to kind of sit here and go with it, but I don't know. I'm just really, really irritated about how the way this has all been handled by primarily fanboys in the press. -I'm gonna get a Wii U. It's fun. -Do you ever play Mario Kart 8? -Yes. -Because that's all that matters is Mario Kart 8. -Yes. A conspiracy theory, Microsoft knew the whole time that it was gonna be DRM free. -You think? -And then they changed it into genius marketing schemes. -There's a lot of people-- -To get the people back on their side. -Right. There's a lot of people who subscribed to that. -Yes. Do you think there's plausibility to that? -We'll call them lunatics. -Okay. -No, I'm kidding. Dude, you could be 100 percent right. Who knows? -That would be insane if that happened. -I mean Microsoft is still as far as I'm concerned trailing. -Yes. -They still have the whole Kinect debacle to deal with. People don't want this Kinect thing looking at you. -Yes. -Which I understand. It's weird. -Yes. -And then they're offering a console that's freaking $100 more. -Because of the Kinect. -Right and what it comes down to it if you're Joe below consumer and it's Black Friday and you wanna buy the console and you're like PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox One is $100 more. -Right. -It's kind of a no-brainer. -Yes. -We're not that valuable sort of fluctuate with there's like pack-ins and stuff like this. I don't know. -You think they might drop the price before the holidays? -No. -No, you don't think so? -At the end of the day, it's 100 bucks like what's-- I know like they-- -They'll probably have bundles at throwing games and so you can-- -Right. -And then you can sort of disguise the $100. -As a rebate and stuff like that. -Right, but whatever it is I mean people, the company have to eat money on console sales all the time. This is nothing new. -Yes. -If you really wanna make it a freaking interesting game, you make it $400. And then you go look, now it's not about the price. Now it's just about the software. And in that department it's pretty dead heat. You know it's dead even there. I don't know. -If someone was only gonna get 1 console and this was the first and only one they're gonna get-- -Don't you dare ask me. -Right it's like a 12-year-old kid that's asking for Christmas. It's gonna be the main question this year, right? -And there's no answer to that. -There's no answer? -There's no answer to that, right? -Well, if it's a parent that's buying it for them, they're gonna go for the cheaper one. -Maybe. -That's true. -Maybe. -Yes. -You know. -And I go for the one that more family members would want, you know, like if it's a really young kid, maybe it's a Nintendo, maybe you know. -Who has all this money? That's what I don't understand? -Yes. -Like it took forever for me to get some console because when I was young and I have it, you know, I practically wanna spend all the money right away. -No. I didn't have every console. Yes. -$100, yes. -They're $400 and $500. And then you have people complaining that like oh, Microsoft doesn't care about the underprivileged gamer. -Yes. -That's like saying Lexus or BMW doesn't care about the underprivileged driver. -Right. -Get out of here. -Or Apple doesn't care. -Driving those cars is of luxury, playing high-end HD video game seems, I'm sorry, is a luxury. -So for people on a budget, you would recommend they would get the portable version of those consoles? -No. Just buy a 360. It's cheaper. -It's gonna be even more on sale on the holidays and it's gonna last for a while. -And there's a gigantic catalogue of games-- -Yes. -For it and the used game platform still exists on that system. You can buy great games for under $10. -Right. -And bam, you're underprivileged but you're still playing fantastic quality entertainment. -Right. It's funny how things become obsolete immediately after something new comes out. -That's how it works. -Yes. -I don't know. It's a very, very strange situation. -Yes. -And it's a circus, and quite frankly I'm not so psyched that I'm a part of this whole thing. -How much were the early video game consoles when they came out? -The Genesis? -Yes, like Genesis, Super NES. How much were those? $199 maybe? -I mean I was too young to understand. -I know. -It still must have been mind-blowing for parents to have to plunk down. -I remember when the PlayStation 1 came out. -Yes. How much was that? -Well, my dad rented it for the night from Blockbuster. -It was 3. Was it 3? Oh, that's right. -Yes. -You can rent. -Oh, the whole console. -That's cool. -That was pretty amazing. We're playing Tekken and everything. -So I'm just going on Wikipedia for some of this information about what the price was. -Yes. -The Sega Genesis retail price in North America released on September 15, 1989, for $190. -That's still a lot. -Okay. Now 190 bucks in 1989, I don't know. Put it in your, you know, inflation calculator. I don't know. What's that like $250 now? -Yes, but-- -Is it-- -But that was also one of the early ones and there was nothing else to compare it to besides like Atari which I have no idea how much. -Yes. I don't know. -There's a lot of wood in that console. I imagined it'd be a lot. -There is a lot of wood paneling in there. -Yes. -Wood paneling gets expensive. What did NES retail for in the U.S.? -No one was buying iPhones back then either. -Right. -And now, we're like spending on just more gadgets. -Right. -In general. -Yes. Okay. So this is saying the introductory price when it was released in the U.S. for the original NES and this is right from Wikipedia, so if I'm wrong, they're wrong. Says in the U.S. for the Deluxe version which was probably 2 controllers, the gun, Duck Hunt, and Mario Brothers, was $300. -Wow. That's a lot of money. -And that's 1985. -Wow. -That's a ton. -That's a lot of money, man. -Yes. -So you know the prices haven't really fluctuated that much. Last generation what did Xbox retail for? Do you remember? I think it was like $400 or 500. Maybe it was $400 for the low end, maybe $300 for the low end and $400 for the high end? -Yes. -But then don't forget-- -And remember the Sony was 600 bucks, the big PlayStation 4 or 3 was 600-- -But those consoles didn't do much. This time around you have to have a lot more add-ons, right, like you have to pay for a yearly Xbox Live subscription. -Sure. -You have to pay more for games. -Yes. -Accessories. -Yes. -And the internet connection itself, you should probably factor in to the price. -There's a lot and I don't know where. I can barely you know-- -And all my Avatar outfits, I mean seriously -Yes. -Favorite-- -I mean these cosplay things are not gonna pay for themselves. -Right. -They're simply not. I want the conversation to continue on this so if you formed an opinion on it, which I'm pretty sure you have, email us, the 404 at CNET.com. You can call us up, 866-404-CNET. We haven't gotten to a lot of voice mails and all that stuff lately just because been a little out of sorts with all the things going on, but now that were back in business and we're gonna have a few, you know, weeks of regular programming, we'll get back into all that. -And speaking of Comic-Con, as long as people are emailing us, if you have any good ideas for what cosplay Jeff and I should dress up as for Comic-Con this year-- -I think-- -You think you have it? -No. I think we should-- how about this? I'll do the Jay and Silent Bob thing with you. -Yes. -Okay? You gotta take care of the costumes. -Oh. Man. -Hey. -What? So I gotta go to like thrift stores and stuff. -I gotta do the work? -Yes. -Okay. -This is your one project. -I could do that. -Okay? -Yes. -So get me a wig. -Yes. -And I'll wear-- -I'll get you a long trench. -And I'll wear like a backwards Devils hat because he's a Devil's fan. -Oh, awesome. -Yes. -Okay. Let's do that. -You're gonna probably see a lot of scruffy guys doing the Superman. -Yes, for sure and I got the beard. It's not-- -It's in there. -It's dark as here. It's red, but that's fine. -Bridget, you're coming with me to a wig store so I could shop for that blonde wig I'll need. -All right because obviously I'm a blonde wig expert. -My hair exactly will look a lot like yours, so I'd imagine you have some good advice. -We'll compare. -Yes. -I might be able to get you a blonde wig. -Oh, what? -I got a guy. -He got a wig guy. -I got a blonde wig guy. -Okay. -Okay? -All right. Let's go for it. -We'll talk to. It's like I'm just thinking all of a sudden like the scene in Goodfellas where-- you've seen Goodfellas, right? -Yes, of course. -Where De Niro is like telling Lorraine Bracco just like keep going. -Yes. -Keep going. That's m blonde wig guy. -Oh, man. -In stores right around the corner. All right. That's it for us. Thanks for tuning in, guys. Back here tomorrow. A big thanks to Bridget Carey helping us nerd out with the Comic-Con stuff and the Xbox stuff. You can follow her on Twitter @BridgetCarey and watch Update. I'm gonna be doing Update next week, right? -That's right. -Monday through Wednesday. -Yes. Thank you for that. Yes. I'll be out for a few days and so watch Jeff. -You got it. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna get a haircut for that. -Oh. -Nice. -I'll have a haircut. -Keeping it classic. -Little haircut for the Update thing. -You got a haircut guy too. -I got a haircut guy. Takes care of you. -Hope they're not the same guy, right? -No. No, no, no. Well, you know, it's the same sort of-- -When he screws up the haircut, he's got a wig. -He's got a wig guy. That's it for us, guys. We'll see you tomorrow. I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Bridget Carey. -I'm Ariel Nuñez. -This has been the 404 Show, High Tech, Low Brow. Back here tomorrow. We'll see you then.