Needless Things

Last weekend Marvel Studios released the newest entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe – Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Naturally a few of the Needless Things Irregulars had to convene to talk about it. This episode wasn’t planned, but after an onslaught of text messages it was decided that a group conversation had to happen. Age of Ultron was simply too big and too packed with story and...

Derek and Ryan from The Casket Creatures visit the Phantom Zone to record a double dose of podcasts!    Over the past few years Phantom Troublemaker has gotten to be pals with the Atlanta horror rockers after meeting them at the illustrious Clermont Lounge where they shared a bill with the legendary Tone Deaf Pig-Dogs. Since then Phantom has emceed shows for the guys and enjoyed general drunken re...

In the second would-be episode of the Phantom & Gary Show ( the first ended up being about Leonard Nimoy ), the fellas’ impending Star Trek conversation was waylaid by the release of trailers for two massive movies – Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.    Once they got over the fact that Star Trek talk was again going to be put off, Phantom realized he...

Last weekend Marvel unleashed the newest corner of their Cinematic Universe on Netflix in the form of Daredevil. The show was so dramatically different and so impactful that Needless Things rallied the troops and recorded a podcast! Phantom Troublemaker is joined by Needless Things' Head Researcher Ryan Schweck, The Belligerent Monkey Jay Hornsby, and a new addition to the Irregulars, costume desi...

Phantom Troublemaker talks to Noah Holt of Kill, Baby… Kill! about music, managing a full-time career and a full-time passion job, and the rewards of family life. Phantom Troublemaker has known Noah for years longer than he’s been Phantom Troublemaker. Noah has been making music for most of his life and was an important influence for Phantom. From punk bands like Stuck At Zero to the surf rock of...

Listen up, Phantomaniacs – it’s that magical time of year when the WWE comes to the forefront of the entertainment world and puts everything it’s got into producing the biggest, wildest, and most entertaining spectacle of the whole year! Phantom Troublemaker put out the call to some of the Needless Things Irregulars to assemble a team of commentators with different outlooks and opinions to specula...

In what was supposed to be the start of an ongoing series of episodes focusing on Star Trek, Phantom and Gary Mitchel end up discussing one of the great heroes of science fiction – Leonard Nimoy. Over a month ago Phantom Troublemaker and Gary Mitchel had agreed to start a secondary podcast – a subcast, if you will, with just the two of them talking about the Trek franchise. The first episode was s...

In today’s episode – the second this week! - Phantom Troublemaker interviews James Bickert, the director of the cult biker/exploitation/Bigfoot movie Dear God No! and its follow-up Frankenstein Created Bikers, which is currently raising funds on Kickstarter . Phantom and James talk about the process of creating films independent of the Hollywood system, James’ personal history with movies, and the...

Phantom Troublemaker and the Needless Things Irregulars once again convene to discuss and review Toy Fair! The 2015 New York International Toy Fair was held from February 13th – 17th so that toy manufacturers from all over the world could get retailers and journalists excited about their offerings for the upcoming year. Hasbro, Mattel, Funko, NECA, and many more all bring out their prototypes, con...

Phantom Troublemaker and the Needless Things Irregulars once again convene to discuss and review Toy Fair! The 2015 New York International Toy Fair was held from February 13th – 17th so that toy manufacturers from all over the world could get retailers and journalists excited about their offerings for the upcoming year. Hasbro, Mattel, Funko, NECA, and many more all bring out their prototypes, con...

Phantom Troublemaker and the ESO Network’s “Howdy” Mike Gordon convene to discuss a common favorite topic – the live-action Batman television show, now commonly colloquialized as Batman ’66. The recent release of the entire series as a deluxe Blu-ray box set prompted this episode. Both of the guys crammed in as much Bat-Viewing as they could to prepare for this look back at a critical point in not...

On today’s episode, Phantom Troublemaker talks to Christopher DePetrillo, the Chief Marketing Officer of Figures Toy Company! Phantom talks to Christopher about the history of Figures Toy Company – from their Legends of Professional Wrestling line to their current robust roster of licenses, including The Three Stooges, Batman ’66, KISS, the characters of Robert E. Howard, and their newest acquisit...

Phantom Troublemaker, The Belligerent Monkey Jay Hornsby, and Needless Things’ Lead Researcher Ryan Schweck convene to look at the current state of comic book adaptations on television. Specifically – Agents of SHIELD, Agent Carter, Arrow, The Flash, Gotham, and Constantine. The guys also get into the potential of Marvel’s Netflix series and interaction between the movie and television universes....

Phantom Troublemaker and Mr. Beau Brown reunite to take a look back at last year’s Masters of the Universe Classics releases from Mattycollector.com! As it turns out, 2014 was the penultimate year of the Masters toy line and Mattel delivered big. While there wasn’t a big release like Castle Grayskull, the releases were more consistently good than they’ve ever been. With impressive toys like Modulo...

Phantom Troublemaker talks to himself and looks at 2015 month by month.    From January’s Royal Rumble Party to the far-flung wilds of October’s Monsterama Con , our host discusses his plans for 2015 and does a little pontification on the side, brought to you by Angry Orchard Cider and Fireball Whisky. Settle in and get ready for an episode that borders on rambling, but is snatched back from the b...

Phantom Troublemaker has been trying to get in with the folks of the Great Atlanta Toy Convention for a while now. Last year things didn’t work out due to his work schedule, but this year it looks like Needless Things will be well represented at the con in March. Before that happened, Phantom wanted to get to know the folks who run the show and they, rightly, wanted to know what they were getting...

Earlier this year Phantom Troublemaker became quite taken with the idea of Record Store Day. If you don’t know, Record Store Day was started by a group of independent store owners as a way to draw attention to independent shops and create hype around the hobby of record collecting. For more information visit the website: RecordStoreDay.com We’re doing things a little backwards, as the actual Recor...

On this week’s Needless Things Podcast, Phantom Troublemaker sat down with Emmy winning television host, restaurateur, chef, artist, musician, writer, and comedian Jim Stacy of Offbeat Eats with Jim Stacy.    Jim talks to Phantom about growing up in a hardworking Southern family, playing in bands like Greasepaint and Grand Moff Tarkin, and the long journey to opening his unique, freestanding resta...

If you read Phantom Troublemaker’s post about The Headless Horseman of Silly Hollow , then you know about his recent visit to the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta.   After the puppet show Phantom was able to sit down with the Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers – siblings Robin Erlandsen and Brian and Erik Torbeck – to discuss the fourteen year history of Silly Hollow as well as their own backgrounds...

In this week's episode we divert from Halloween festivities (sorry, boils and ghouls) to address what is potentially the biggest news the toy industry has seen in over a decade - Scott Nietlich - AKA Toy Guru - has resigned from Mattel due to an offer from an as-yet unnamed competitor. On hearing this, Phantom Troublemaker scrapped plans for a horror toy episode and assembled the Needless Things T...

Shane Morton has been a fixture of the Atlanta scene for pretty much all of his adult life. From rock n’ roll to tattooing to haunted attractions, he’s always stayed busy and contributed to many different art forms. In this episode Phantom Troublemaker traveled out to the Morton homestead to talk about Shane’s many pursuits over the years. He’s rocked in the bands Super X-13 and Gargantua, owned B...

In this week’s episode Phantom Troublemaker sits down with “Howdy” Mike Gordon, host of the Earth Station One Podcast and creator of Tiki Zombie . Phantom and Mike discuss the creator’s history, his views on the art of creating comics, and which franchise he'd galdy take over given the opportunity. It's a great conversation that gives a great insight into the mind of a great creator and a talented...

This is literally the biggest episode so far! Needless Things wanted to do something really cool for the first October episode, so we gathered a whole bunch of folks together to talk about horror and fear. Featured in this episode are: Phantom Troublemaker – Your Host Beth V – Needless Things’ Top Reporter R.T. Ewell – Author and Needless Things Contributor Ryan Cadaver – Lead Vo-Kill-Ist for The...

Dragon Con is over and I may only have one podcast to show for it! Due to many different factors – one of which was me neglecting to turn on my digital recorder – I only recorded one panel. But that's okay because it was a great one! I felt very fortunate to once again be at the table with the wonderful and talented William Stout, this time for a discussion of Conan the Destroyer. Listen in as Teg...

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be part of a conversation with the DCW Hooligans? Today’s Needless Things Podcast is your opportunity to find out! Of course, none of that may mean anything to you. If you’re not a regular visitor to NeedlessThingsSite.com then you probably don’t know what the heck a DCW Hooligan is. The DCW Hooligans are a group of people that attend Dragon Con Wres...