The Con Men

What childhood toy would you buy back today, regardless of how financially irresponsible the decision might be? Dan and Adrian rummage through the toy boxes of their youth, revisiting everything from Figment, Merlin, Speak & Spell, and Computertron to He-Man, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Boglins, Dino-Riders, Captain Power, and vintage Star Trek figures. They talk about the toys they kept, the coll...

Every fan has an origin story. This week, Dan and Adrian trace the roots of comic conventions back to the 1960s before diving into the comics, characters, and moments that shaped their own fandoms. From the earliest Comic-Cons and the rise of San Diego Comic-Con to first comic books, Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, MAD Magazine, and the changing landscape of collecting, the conversation becomes a nosta...

This week on  The Con Men Show , Adrian and Dan take a nostalgia-fueled run through the strange, glorious, and occasionally cursed world of cartoons that became movies, movies that became cartoons, and toy lines that became entire childhood operating systems. The conversation starts with  Masters of the Universe , from He-Man lore and the Sword of Power to the 1987 Cannon Films live-action movie,...

This week on  The Con Men Show , Dan and Adrian travel from Earth to Eternia for a spoiler-filled walk-through of the 2026  Masters of the Universe  movie. Adrian brings the He-Man credentials, Dan brings the toy-history goblin brain, and together they unpack a movie that knows exactly what it is: big, weird, colorful, funny, sincere, and proudly toyetic. They talk childhood memories, the scale of...

Summer has arrived, and The Con Men are feeling nostalgic. Dan and Adrian take a winding trip through the traditions, memories, and pop culture touchstones that made summer special. From Southern heat and humidity to summer camps, swimming lessons, family vacations, church trips, beach days, and childhood rites of passage, the conversation explores how summer shaped a generation. Along the way, th...

🚀  THIS WEEK ON THE CON MEN SHOW!  🚀 A mysterious Imperial warlord! A runaway Hutt heir! A bounty hunter with a score to settle! And one tiny green force-wielding chaos goblin standing between peace and absolute mayhem! Dan and Adrian strap into the cockpit and punch it to hyperspace as they break down  The Mandalorian & Grogu  — a Star Wars adventure packed with monsters, Mandalorians, dogf...

This week, Dan and Adrian limp across the finish line on approximately one functioning brain cell and somehow end up having one of their most honest conversations yet. What starts as tech issues, Bluetooth confusion, and convention-road exhaustion spirals into a surprisingly thoughtful discussion about toxic fandoms, gatekeeping, nostalgia, reboots, and why people get so weirdly territorial about...

This week on The Con Men Show, Dan and Adrian somehow begin with tabletop roleplaying games, detour through cosplay discourse, spiral into Moulin Rouge appreciation, take an unexpected international food tour, and eventually land on the question: what terrible movie ideas somehow became billion-dollar franchises? Along the way: D&D nostalgia, Robotech memories, Shadowrun chummers, Paris travel sto...

This week,  The Con Men Show  opens where all serious cultural criticism should begin: with action figures, shelf math, and the adult collector’s sacred distinction between “playing with toys” and “building dioramas.” From GI Joe displays to Star Wars figures, from still-carded Star Trek toys to one wounded LEGO Shuttle Discovery, Dan and Adrian stumble directly into the real topic hiding in plain...

This week, The Con Men wander through the stars before landing squarely on the convention floor. What starts as a deceptively simple question— which era of Star Trek would you actually want to live in? —turns into a thoughtful (and occasionally ridiculous) breakdown of technology, comfort, danger, and the strange appeal of frontier living versus utopian polish. From smoky-jacket Original Series vi...

This week the Con Men roam free through the pop culture wilderness—favorite podcasts, Star Trek legends, celebrity panels, forgotten comedy bits, Mountain Dew flavors, and the strange joy of media that sticks with you for decades. Along the way, Dan and Adrian trade stories from conventions, movie theaters, fandom life, and the kinds of random conversations that somehow become the best conversatio...

Dan and Adrian enter the arena this week with a surprise deep dive into the strange golden age of video game movies. From Street Fighter and Super Mario Bros. to arcade glory days, console wars, and the beautiful nonsense of 90s pop culture, the guys revisit an era when every cartridge eventually became a questionable screenplay. Along the way, they give flowers to Raúl Juliá, debate who their tru...

This week on  The Con Men Show , we somehow start with StreamYard sabotage and a typo-born “hoyman” identity crisis, then slingshot straight into Artemis, moon missions, pale blue dot philosophy, claustrophobic space toilets, and why humanity probably ought to keep doing hard things even when the payoff isn’t immediate. Because apparently this episode came with actual feelings hidden inside the no...

This week on  The Con Men Show , we go full kaiju mode—digging into Godzilla, the wild world of niche conventions, and the kind of fandom rabbit holes that start innocent and end with you pricing flights to Chicago for G-Fest. From classic rubber-suit chaos to modern takes like  Shin Godzilla  and  Minus One , we unpack what makes the King of the Monsters stick around for 70 years—and why sometime...

Dan and Adrian are back to chat about the enduring legacy of 80s action, the creation of internet myths, and the art of keeping our heroes legendary. And guess what? We’re even talking about actual continuity! We’re sharing our thoughts on Chuck Norris’s passing, mixing humor, nostalgia, and respect as we consider his cultural impact—from his martial arts credentials to his 80s action reign and hi...

Dan and Adrian kick things off with speculation around a possible  Firefly reunion , sparked by Nathan Fillion making the rounds with the cast and teasing a March announcement. From there, things unfold exactly as you’d expect—by which I mean  completely unpredictably . What starts as sci-fi hype quickly spirals into: A love letter to  short-lived but legendary shows A deep dive into  absurdist ci...

This week The Con Men start with a deep dive into the early days of color film and television, sparked by a discussion of The Wizard of Oz and how groundbreaking the transition from sepia to Technicolor really was. Dan and Adrian explore the strange technical tricks used in early filmmaking — including painted sets, body doubles, and bizarre makeup palettes designed specifically for black-and-whit...

Dan and Adrian break down the  Mandalorian & Grogu  preview, talk about why fandom sometimes turns toxic, and introduce a simple rule for judging movies: Consider the premise. "Is it a good film… or a good giant-fighting-robot movie?" Rather than nitpicking every frame, the conversation centers on a bigger question:  how should fans judge the media they love? Dan introduces the idea of  “consi...

The week The Con Men stumble from Deep Space Nine, into Picard, Discovery, and Admiral Vance’s… culinary revelations. Then we pivot hard into 80s nostalgia, Galaxy Quest, Saturday morning cartoons, Mr. Rogers, Kevin Smith, and our most controversial segment yet: cinematic confession hour. Some of the greatest films ever made? We’re not all convinced. Plus — listener emails, five-star gratitude, an...

Storm of the century? Please. We’re talking about the con of the century. This week on  The Con Men Show , we trace Star Trek’s convention roots back to 1972, when 500 expected fans turned into 3,000 shoulder-to-shoulder Trekkies — and accidentally built the blueprint for modern con culture. Then we boldly go into  Starfleet Academy  — Holly Hunter’s commandant chaos energy, contemporary slang in...

In this episode, The Con Men recap convention life from the inside — from guest relations duties and celebrity interactions to the real logistics behind running a successful show. The conversation drifts into underrated films, 90s soundtrack culture, and how streaming platforms quietly game subscription timing. The guys also talk Trek — respectfully, honestly — and close with a reminder about comm...

This week The Con Men kick things off with collector talk and  Transformers: The Movie  nostalgia before tumbling headfirst into a discovery:  1986 might be one of the most stacked pop-culture years ever. From childhood-defining movies to “it was on HBO every weekend so we watched it 400 times,” we break down the difference between true classics and nostalgia classics — and accidentally map out fu...

In this episode, The Con Men unpack the idea of “movies that lost their innocence” — not because the films changed, but because  we did . From Dragnet’s jokes that flew over childhood heads to the cultural whiplash of Revenge of the Nerds, Bill & Ted, Big Trouble in Little China, and Cannonball Run, the conversation drifts through ratings systems, generational context, and how nostalgia collid...

The Con Men Bounce from the death of the penny, into the metric system’s shipwrecked origin story, and why America refuses to measure things like a normal country. From there, the show veers into tabletop RPG war stories (including a near-fatal Alien RPG dice roll), Kickstarter confessions, and the strange poetry of declaring “intent to do harm” in Powered by the Apocalypse systems. The back half...

How about an in-person field report straight from the con floor? The Con Men finally record in the same room while working Central Carolina Comic Con, trading remote latency for real-world chaos, side chatter, and the kind of conversations you only get after a full day of badges, handlers, and folding tables. The episode pulls back the curtain on the less glamorous—but far more interesting—side of...