Pushing 34.5 thousand followers, I’d say he’s earned the title of Toy Press.
I first met Instagram’s @toyshiz offline, in fact, at NY Toy Fair 2019. Meeting this guy was an absolute networking highlight of the show. He was bursting with nerdy enthusiasm at the DC Collectibles booth where we first got acquainted. But, as nerdy as his interests may be, he was also very friendly, professional and well dressed, personable and clearly intelligent. My kinda guy!
Then and there at the fair, as I was covering DC for C506, we confirmed a podcast recording for my DC Collecticast show. So, our next episode features an interview with the self-made toy man of Instagram. This is a guy who got himself press passes to a major press-only event, through sheer Instagram follower build-up of his own doing.
Pushing 34.5 thousand followers, I’d say he’s earned the title of Toy Press. Choosing to go only by “Toy Shiz” for our pod interview, he explains @ToyShiz as a profile and how Instagram and perseverance has gotten him to an event like Toy Fair.
@ToyShiz from my DC Collecticast interview:
TS: I try to always to tell the story in the sense of, I worked in illustration, I worked in marketing, everything else. And, a lot of the ideas that I was doing, let’s just say for one of the companies, they were like, “Nah, this will never work.” So, I was like, ok. Well, I’m going to prove it, and it’s one of those things with social media: You’ve got to stay on it, you’ve got to be engaging, you gotta be fun, you can’t just post stuff.
…it’s more for people on the go. They don’t have the time to explore forums or websites or anything like that.
But, I took my love of toys and instituted it. So, I basically started @ToyShiz as like a “Funstagram.” Ya know, “Look at all my dumb little toys I have, like my collection. Oh, this is so fascinating, don’t you wanna see? There’s a million of these things on Instagram!” But, I got more, like, a lot of people were telling me, “As much as I know about toys, I don’t know anything.
And, I’m like, well that’s where I can come in, because I know a heck of a lot about toys. Probably more than I should. More than anybody should, really [Laughs]. But, I like those little details and weird facts and everything else. I’m like a sponge to those things. So, I tried to use that.
I think it makes it easier. Hopefully, people find it easy to go into a store and find their stuff as a result.
And then, I always tell everybody: Toy Shiz wouldn’t really exist without all my subscribers and people writing in on a daily basis saying, “Hey, I found this, hey I found this wild thing. I can’t believe this is out.” So, it’s more about getting news out to people, being more informative, and, it’s more for people on the go. They don’t have the time to explore forums or websites or anything like that. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but, a majority of people–especially older fans and stuff like that–they just don’t have the time. They just want to know, “Where can I go get this immediately?” And, that’s where I try to get in, and, ya know, we talk about different companies. And, then, companies are like, “Hey, this is coming out, can you talk about this, can you do this?”
I think it makes it easier. Hopefully, people find it easy to go into a store and find their stuff as a result.
BD: Yea, all you have to do is check @toyshiz on Instagram. Check that [profile’s] story, and you will have a full scope of what is going on toy-store-report-wise at any time.
TS: Yea, and again, to everybody who always writes in, I always say thank you so much. Because, it’s basically a group effort. People wrote in this morning, just before we recorded the podcast. Someone found something. And, I always try to make it like, “This is amazing, but just before you reach for your car keys, it’s not supposed to be out yet. So, you probably won’t find it in the store just yet. Here’s the street date. Here’s the DPCI. But, once that street date hits, you’re golden.
This interview with Instagram’s @ToyShiz will be featured on the next episode of my DC Collecticast podcast. Make sure to follow his Instagram for ALL the latest toy store updates. If you haven’t already, check out the Toy Fair episode of DCC as well. We have more DC talk on that same episode from Cryptozoic, Funko, and DC Collectibles.
Follow us on Instagram @dccollecticast and YouTube (Comic Book Intl) for more vids/pics from Toy Fair. CLICK HERE to subscribe to the podcast! Available on iTunes, the Anchor app, and many more pod places.
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