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“Where nostalgia competes for the top spot.” 🏆
From the VHS aisles to the Saturday-morning toy shelves, The Sleepover Retro Countdown Show rewinds the analog past one list at a time. Hosts Rob and Guido—the retro archivists behind Sleepover Trading Co.—dig through decades of movies, music, toys, comics, commercials, and more to build definitive Top 10 countdowns celebrating the weird, wonderful, and occasionally warped corners of pop culture. Each week, they each bring five picks, debate their merits, and rank the results into one final “Sleepover Top Ten," and every episode is a time-traveling mixtape for VHS kids, mall rats, and midnight movie fans alike.
📼 Presented by Sleepover Trading Co. — be kind, rewind your childhood.
🔗 Follow: sleepovertrading.com | @SleepoverTrading
>> Rob: Foreign. Welcome to the Sleepover Retro countdown show, where nostalgia competes for the top spot. Brought to you by Sleepover Trading Company, reminding you to be kind. Rewind your childhood.
>> Guido: Each episode, your hosts, Rob and Guido each bring five picks from deep in the analog archives. We're bringing movies, comics, toys, songs, commercials, whatever. And we are battling it out to build the ultimate top 10 list.
>> Rob: That's right. So grab your Jeffrey dollars because.
>> Guido: Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Now I want to go on ebay and buy Jeffrey dollars.
>> Rob: Thank you for that.
>> Guido: M. I forgot about Jeffrey dollars.
>> Rob: Well, with inflation, what are they worth today? Who knows?
>> Guido: I wonder if the new Toys R Us that have been reopening are willing to accept them.
>> Rob: If you bring them into, like, one in the Macy's, it's like, please give me this bratz doll for 10 Jeffrey dollars. Well, we are heading to the toy store today, Guido. So join us for another round of the Sleepover Retro Countdown show.
>> Guido: On this episode, we are counting down the top ten action figure playsets.
>> Rob: M. But what is a playset?
>> Guido: Or what are our rules? Today's rules are pretty simple. A playset is a larger item that action figures can play in or with or on, but it's not a vehicle. So, yes, just to be clear, it.
>> Rob: Could even have wheels, but I don't think, like, motion is its primary thing.
>> Guido: Right. Function. And rule number two, action figures are any toy meant to be played with. So, yes, we're not going to classify dolls versus action figures versus collectibles. It's whatever.
>> Rob: A troll. Would a troll be an actual.
>> Guido: I don't think we have a troll playset on our top 10 list. But.
>> Rob: But I had Battle Trolls, and they might have had a place at.
>> Guido: I don't know if they were popular enough, but someone can let us know in the comments if there are any troll playsets that we're missing, because the. They should be on this list if there are.
>> Rob: Yes. Well, why don't you. Why don't you kick us off since you.
>> Guido: I will kick us off with our rules. So we are competing for the 9 and 10 spots on our countdown, and I am bringing a personal favorite that doesn't belong on this list, but it's a personal favorite. And that is the she Ra, Princess of power, Crystal Castle.
>> Rob: Yes, I know it well because it's sitting in our store.
>> Guido: Well, because that's because we have multiple editions of it. And that's because I am slowly trying to complete mine, which is. Which is why it had to make it to this list, even though it's not a good playset. But let me tell you, it's from mattel. It's from 1984. It has rooms.
>> Rob: Ooh.
>> Guido: It has a fur rug, which, I'll tell you now, 40 years later, is really hard to find. No one saved that fur rug. It has a canopy bed. You don't get more action than that.
>> Rob: No. Well, someone was getting an action in that canopy bed.
>> Guido: And it has an elevator throne, so, yes. This is a ridiculous.
>> Rob: Elevators were very big in a lot of these toys.
>> Guido: Ridiculous. It's a throne. It makes no sense. You then get to pull the person up. It is ridiculous. It's not great, but I love it. I was gonna choose Gems Rockin Stage, but I'll tell you, I had to choose this because this is what I'm collecting. It's what I love. It's, I do like the design on the outside. I like that it is a castle sitting in clouds. I like how pink it is. I like all of that.
>> Rob: Well, the outside. That's the key word that you said, because once you open it up, it's just plain. Like, there's no.
>> Guido: It's ridiculous. There's a fireplace.
>> Rob: Exactly. They could have put some stickers on the wall or something, but it's basically like you only just see the crevices from the cool outside.
>> Guido: On the inside, it is m. Not the greatest playset, but I love it. It's important, and it is my number five choice. So tell me, how do you. How are you competing with the Crystal Castle?
>> Rob: Okay, well, I'm competing with the only playset on my list that I did not actually have.
>> Guido: Oh.
>> Rob: And yes. So this is the Technodrome from Teenage Mutant ninja turtles from 1990.
>> Guido: I had this.
>> Rob: I don't know how I didn't have this, because, one, I loved villains. Two, I love turtles. And I had. And as you still know, because I still have most of them, a pretty big turtles collection. And I had some vehicles. I don't know how. I never had the techno drop.
>> Guido: I wonder if it was hard to get by the time because you're a little younger. Maybe it hadn't, like, maybe it had been a little, retro even at that point. Maybe it was in an early wave. I don't know.
>> Rob: That could be.
>> Guido: Tell me why it's on this list. What are the features that sell it to you?
>> Rob: Number one, of course, I loved the rotating eye on the top. It's very like Illuminati back of the dollar bill. And, like, just a Weird feature in general. And of course I knew it from the TV show, but I don't think it ever really. Or maybe if it did, it only did in one episode, like roll off and be used as a weapon on the TV show. But I know that was like such a huge feature of the playset itself. Did you use that?
>> Guido: Yeah, I think I remember this one. A good number of these playsets, but this one had a lot of pieces that would break off and you'd lose them. And so I. I want to say that the eye was gone for me pretty early on and didn't come back.
>> Rob: It seems like that. And the one thing I'll say about it. And of course, so I desperately. I do want it now. It's not like it's hard to find. I just haven't wanted to commit spending the money because I have nowhere to put it. The one thing that's a bit of an issue with this one is the scale.
>> Guido: I, didn't love this. I agree. It didn't make sense to me that it was so off, like you couldn't really fit the characters in it and have any.
>> Rob: And now one of my other ones down the line on our list, like, is great with scale. And when you compare that one with this one, it's like if you put Bebop next to it, like he's half the size of the Technodrome, which is.
>> Guido: Just a two layer thing. But yeah, it's should have been a lot bigger and it's silly that it wasn't. So.
>> Rob: Yeah, so, I mean, I know that they've redone it and it looks cool and it looks very accurate to the original. If they do another version, I'd love them to go like us flag style. Like, let's, let's have a big boy that is like, you know, almost at least to scale or close to scale. That would be cool.
>> Guido: Well, I'm. I'm forfeit this round. Even though the Technodrome wasn't to scale, the Crystal Castle doesn't belong on this list. So the Crystal Castle can be our number 10 pick. The Technodrome can be our number 9 pick. So, moving right along, tell us what you've got up for our next battle.
>> Rob: Okay, this is an obscure one and one you certainly did not have, but this is the Star Wars Micro Machines Royal guard playset from 1996, so.
>> Guido: 96, that's pre prequels, right?
>> Rob: Pre prequels. Now, I don't remember when the special editions were coming out, but this might have been around the time when the special Editions were rolling out, and Star wars was becoming more available than it had in many years.
>> Guido: All right?
>> Rob: And one thing I loved about this. So I always loved, like, these real weird, obscure villains. I loved the Crimson Guard. In, In G.I. joe had a Crimson Guard that was like the elite forces. And then there's the Imperial Guard, who also wears red in Star Wars. Maybe that's where GI Joe got it from. And I like these characters who's only in Return of the Jedi. They don't have a big part, but I love that it's in their head. And then there's a lot of pieces like you do. You got a big bang for your buck with this one, because you got Vader, you got Luke, you got two royal guards, you've got an Imperial officer, you got the Imperial shuttle. And then you got the Emperor who's, like, in his chair. So it's all in there. There's a spinning, reactor that you can, like, move. That's like this yellow, green neon top there. I wasn't a huge Micro Machines person, but I was a big Star wars person. And I love that there's so much there.
>> Guido: Some of what I think Micro Machines had the advantage of is everything being shrunk down meant it could have more detail. So it's like Polly Pocket or Mighty Max. Like, those are good examples like this, where you can just fit so much into something so small and the scale doesn't feel off like you were mentioning with the Technodrome. So I think it is cool. I did not have this. I'm not even familiar with it, but looking at it is cool.
>> Rob: And people, like, look down on Return of the Jedi. It was my. I don't know if I would call it today. I'd have to go back. But it was my favorite of the Star wars movies, and in big part because I just love the emperor. I love the throne room. I love, like, the window looking out on the Death Star. So to be able to have this. I don't know if there was a more accurate or bigger version of that emperor's throne room playset, but to have it here in this form was pretty cool.
>> Guido: Yeah.
>> Rob: What's your what. What's competing with the Emperor? The Imperial throne room.
>> Guido: All right, I'm going back to the Turtles, and I am going to bring up the sewer playset. The Teenage Ninja Turtles sewer playset from 1989. Playmates. And this is also not a great playset, but it's on this list because it's a cool idea. It's just a Place to hang out. That's what's kind of fun. This is not a place where anyone would battle or where there were a lot of weapons. Now it's two levels. So you could do battle on the street and then keep the. The HQ down in the sewer. And of course there's the manhole cover and there's the fire hydrant, which actually goes under and it's the periscope. And there's all of the telephone wire towers and there's the pipes that you can go through. And it has an elevator, of course, because every playset on my list has an elevator. But it was just so fun to me that I could have the place where they hang out. And I liked this. Again, doesn't do a whole lot. Doesn't look great. The scale is also a little off, so it's, I think, a Turtles issue. Playmates must have been really trying to cut some corners and save some money, so.
>> Rob: Well, Turtles were pretty big, so I get that. They couldn't make something that much bigger than that though.
>> Guido: Like HE man playsets are to scale in a way that Turtles are not. So it's possible. Now, of course, we've. Yeah. Anyway, we'll get into more HE man playsets. So did you have the sewer playset?
>> Rob: No, you know, I really don't think I had any Turtles playsets. I had several Turtles vehicles, but no, I don't think I ever had the playset. Exactly. I do like the idea that the turtles could actually be crawling through it and then it seems semi functional in that way.
>> Guido: Yeah. So it's fun. It's like almost like a smaller version of a Barbie Dream Home. And that's what I really liked about it. So I wish it had been bigger, of course, and had more features and levels, but it's getting you a little closer. So.
>> Rob: Yeah.
>> Guido: Who's winning this round? Whoa.
>> Rob: I guess.
>> Guido: Tough one.
>> Rob: I give it to Turtles.
>> Guido: Okay, I'll take it.
>> Rob: Just because I have such an affinity for the Turtles. The other thing I'll say too, that is, is looking at it here, both the sewer playset and the Technodrome have pretty cool box art too. It's nothing crazy and out of the ordinary, but they both look just great and classic. It actually makes the toy look a lot more fun than they actually are.
>> Guido: I do think the box art was a huge part of the sale for most of these toys. Without a doubt. All right, so our number eight pick is the Micro Machines Star Wars Royal Guard. And our number seven is the Teenage Mutant Turtles Sewer playset. Moving on to our. Our number six and number five spots. I am bringing some of the big guns now we're building here. So my number three pick competing for this spot is the Masters of the Universe Snake Mountain playset. I have to give this lime pit an honorable mention. I really struggled with which one to go for. But Snake Mountain has the features that every playset should have. And not only that. So this is the 1984 Mattel playset for Skeletor and the Evil Masters. It is so cool in its design. It's the design of this one really gets me. So not only does it have, like, a bridge that actually connects the two sides that you set up, but it has that great face of the mountain and the mouse can move. It has true trapdoors. Trapdoors were great features of playsets, and a few of them have here. It's purple, it's creepy, it's really articulated. But of course, everyone knows the most famous feature here, which is you talk into the, like, jackal or whatever it is head, and it's electronic, and it modifies your voice to, become scary and sound creepy. And that's just the coolest thing in the world to me.
>> Rob: Yeah. And I've seen, of course, many videos of it on the classic commercial from this. How well did that actually work?
>> Guido: It worked moderately well. It worked well in the sense that, like, when you would talk into it, it would sound like, I think it was just because it was such a bad quality microphone, though, that it ended up.
>> Rob: It's not even a microphone.
>> Guido: Right.
>> Rob: It's not like. Was it electronic? It is.
>> Guido: It is electronic. Yeah. Yeah. That's what's so cool about it. So you'd put battery, there was a little speaker, and then when you spoke into it, it would do all of that. So it's cool. It did modulate your voice. it didn't transform it that much, but it did modulate it, and it was just very cool. And an interesting early use of electronic in these playsets.
>> Rob: And the other interesting thing about this play, no, I never had a stigma. I didn't really have much from the original MOTU line, because I was more Next, generation, or what's it called? New Adventures. So Captain Picard and the New Adventures in Female. But one thing that's interesting, though, about this one is a lot of these features are not actually on how it's depicted in the cartoon. Right. Like, there's not that creepy face. There's no actual snake in Snake Mountain.
>> Guido: Well, There is. The whole mountain is a snake in the cartoon.
>> Rob: The whole mountain. But it doesn't have like. This one actually has an actual snake in it.
>> Guido: Yeah. This one is, yes, for sure. Similar to the Crystal Castle. They. Neither of these are direct depictions from the cartoon. Castle Grayskull gets a little closer.
>> Rob: Yeah, that one is more. Yeah.
>> Guido: And it's, ah, funny enough, not on my list. But this one, this one is.
>> Rob: Well, this one looks, I think, also as a nice statement piece that you could put out on your home, which is what most people now would be doing with these playsets, as opposed to Castle Grayskull. And I think certainly the Crystal Castle, like this one would look cool just sitting out on your shelf.
>> Guido: Yeah, agreed. So that's my pick. What are you competing with it with?
>> Rob: Well, I don't think it's really competing because this one's a deep cut and a, strange one. But this is Todd McFarlane's Phantom of the Opera playset from McFarlane in 1998.
>> Guido: I think probably 100 people knew this existed before.
>> Rob: 100 people. It does say playset, right?
>> Guido: It does. I have to say, I never had this. I never touched it. But looking at a picture, I wouldn't call it a playset, but they call it a playset. So. Great.
>> Rob: They call it a playset. I'll say it's mostly two figures with a, like a stand, but. Okay, so here's what's so cool about it. So I was a huge into Phantom of the Opera because of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, but I watched all the movies and this one just has all the basic elements. So you've got a big organ. You have like the opera box with an actual fabric curtain, like your rug in the Crystal Castle. So that just makes it cool. And then there's this beam that goes over. Over the opera box with a chandelier. And if you press down on kind of a little button on top of the chandelier, the chandelier falls, which is, of course a really famous moment in. In the Musical comes with two figures. The Phantom and I guess who's supposed to be Raul. I don't even know if he's named. They both have masks and they both have swords, which is cool. I don't know if the Phantom is ever using a sword and certainly not the music.
>> Guido: Farland's World. They are. They are.
>> Rob: Yeah. And Raul has like a big, like, goat mask. It almost looks like Skeletor's Havoc staff, but he wears it on his head. Why? Who knows but it just, it does look cool. And the Phantom himself, very gray, very kind of almost zombie like face. So yes, there's not much of a playset here. But I love that it does have this very accurate action like of the chandelier falling.
>> Guido: If not for the chandelier. If not for the chandelier it would just be a base. It would just be a stand. But the chandelier I guess is why they got to call it a playset and can get away with it.
>> Rob: And this is what I would 100% go and buy now because it is a bit more manageable to have out on your shelf. And there's also just say what you want about like some of the stuff that they've done. But like the McFarlane like there are some really cool pieces there. And I think like this one, the fantasy just looks really well.
>> Guido: Yeah. So we've got two kind of skull faced characters in this round. But I don't know, there's nothing electronic about the Phantom of the Opera playset.
>> Rob: There's nothing.
>> Guido: And it's.
>> Rob: And being that it's barely a playset and I want to save my goodwill for my top two.
>> Guido: Oh, we're going to be battling it out forever. So our number six is Phantom of the Opera playset. And our number five is Todd McFarlane's.
>> Rob: Phantom of the Opera playset. That is the actual.
>> Guido: With the other one. I don't think there was another one. All right, we are down to our top spots. Tell us what it is that you are bringing to our next battle.
>> Rob: Okay. Well, you mentioned this line briefly before, but this is trapped in Skull Mountain from Mighty Max 1992. Not Snake Mountain. This is Skull Mountain. So this is a big. So of course obviously we all know Mighty Max. The h. Mighty Max was kind of a playset onto itself, but tiny. This one is huge. So it was you know, a couple feet tall. Opens up. And then it came with a plethora of various figures which was really cool.
>> Guido: Comes with plethora.
>> Rob: Exactly, exactly. The. The skull master, who was another skull based villain who was the main villain in Mighty Max. I don't even remember the Mighty Max lore, but also came with warmonger, his assistant, the rock monster and had a double headed dragon and other smaller minions. And then what was really cool was like from the. If you looked at it from the outside, the mountain had some glow and those were fireballs actually that you could launch out of it. It has this teeth and tongue at the opening which actually opens up to be the bridge. And then inside has all this kind of Rube Goldberg mousetrap kind of, like components to it, which were great because you could obviously actually trap Mighty Max, who also came. there was a Mighty Max that came with it as well as part of it. So it's very cool because there's lots of moving parts.
>> Guido: Did it work?
>> Rob: Yes. Yeah, I remember it working.
>> Guido: I remember sometimes those, like, Rube Goldberg aspects didn't actually work. You thought they were going to, but, you know, the missile just sort of fell out. And I think. I think I remember it working.
>> Rob: There's a little. I think there's also, again, going back to it, like kind of an elevator. There's a little perch at the top that goes pretty far up. anyway, it just. It's really cool, but it's one of those cool ones because sometimes I think with some of these, like the Technodrome with the Crystal Castle looks cool on the outside, you open it up kind of plain here. I think it looks really cool on the outside. And when you open it up, there's all these little gizmos inside. So that keeps the interest going.
>> Guido: Fun. All right. I didn't.
>> Rob: You never had. You never had this? You weren't a Mighty Max?
>> Guido: No, I had a few Mighty Max, I think, but, yeah, it was not my thing. I don't know why.
>> Rob: Or if I think if I got.
>> Guido: Or it was a little late for.
>> Rob: Me, maybe I could see myself collecting Mighty Maxes because they're, cool in that, like, you would keep them closed on, or you could keep them, like, open.
>> Guido: Yeah, I agree. All right. But I have one of two grails coming.
>> Rob: Okay.
>> Guido: My number two choice is something I did not have, and it is the Thundercats cats lair. And now, while that name doesn't do anything to sell you on it, this is from M 1986 from LJN, and it is so cool. I couldn't get this. It was too expensive. I was never allowed to get it. So not only is it cool looking, it's almost 2ft tall. It has guns under the cat's paws that pop out. It's the exact layer from the cartoon. So they can go up inside it and behind it and they can fight with it, but it had a laser game with, like, infrared, like, laser tag almost. So these certain figures would come with laser sabers, and they could fire at the mouth of the layer, and the layer would record the points, and, like, an alarm would go off when it got fired upon. So it was like, whoa. That is. That probably why it was so expensive is like using laser tag technology to create this. This game aspect of the playset. And I never had it, so I can't speak to how well it worked, but, well, it is.
>> Rob: At least you can still see today. Because I'd imagine there were many children that were blinded by these lasers.
>> Guido: Well, no, because it's infrared. Like, it was an actual laser. It was like a remote control laser.
>> Rob: Okay. I was thinking laser pointer.
>> Guido: I think they wanted you to think it was that because they called it laser. Because, of course, I mean, you didn't have Thundercats figures, but they all had, like, the little thing you put on your finger and you press it into their back and it lights up. And so then, like, there were electronic features of a lot of Thundercats. And Lionel, his eyes would turn red. It was very cool set and series that LJN did. But the cats lair was something I always wanted and could never have. And we'll get one day.
>> Rob: No, see, I. I didn't get into thundercats until middle school. Even, like, early high school, seeing it on Toonami like, it was not a part of my growing up whatsoever. Even he. Man, even though I didn't collect much of the original line, like, I still watched some of the filmation, I was still familiar with it. I think Thundercats was something that completely escaped me.
>> Guido: Yeah, maybe it didn't live on in syndication quite as much, or who knows? The toys were hard to find even then. I think it just wasn't as mass produced either, which is part of why they're quite, a bit more expensive than toys generally are now.
>> Rob: So this is making it hard, though, because this is. Here we've got two things that, like, I never played with yours. You didn't even have yours. You didn't play with mine. You're like. Neither of us are super familiar with either of these toy lines in general.
>> Guido: But mine sounds cooler. Okay, well, if mine advertised it, it is very cool.
>> Rob: I think mine would work as advertised as well.
>> Guido: Advertised with a laser game.
>> Rob: No, Mine comes with figures, though. But are we judging it just on the playset itself package? You didn't have to spend the extra money, so I don't know.
>> Guido: I have a feeling it's not going to be as tough as our number one spot, so I'll give it Trapped in Skull Mountain because I didn't have the cat's lair, so.
>> Rob: Okay. Yes. Okay.
>> Guido: Our number four pick is the Thundercats Cat Slayer. Our number three pick is Skull Mountain from the Mighty Max series. And here we are in our top spot. And I'm gonna have to win because I have the holy grail of almost any action figure collector, which is the Masters of the universe 1986 from Mattel Eternia. I did not have Eternia. I, can't believe that I don't yet have an Eternia. but I will one day soon, because this beast is legendary. We have seen them in stores. You and I have gotten the chance to see actual original, not. Not the re release original ones, but never owned it. And it is three towers connected by monorail, A working monorail system. There are trapdoors because everything needed trapdoors and all sorts of things that go into it. No electronic, no gimmicky feature. I think the gimmick is the design. The gimmick is the fact that it's not just a playset. It's an entire kingdom.
>> Rob: Right.
>> Guido: It's three different pieces. You can have two 20 figures engaging this playset and not run out of room. So the design is the thing, and it is perfect. It's so highly breakable, which is part of why it's so expensive. But that's okay. I'm willing to forgive that. It's perfect.
>> Rob: Well, I'm starting the argument now for mine without even saying it, which is one. You've already said. One of the things I was going to say, like, is it a good playset? If it's a playset. Remember, emphasis on the play. If it's breakable, if you can't even actually play with it. And the other thing I'll say here is the monorail. Very cool, definitely. But it feels like it's just. It's more multiple things that you play around rather than like you're actually interacting and standing on and crawling through.
>> Guido: Yes.
>> Rob: That'S correct, but. And it's cool.
>> Guido: Even if you go back to your.
>> Rob: Turtles example, like, you're actually like, you know, crawling through the item.
>> Guido: The other wild thing is that it's. The design of it is also very unusual and not particularly directly from. Lifted from the cartoon. But there's like, the Grayskull Tower, there's the Snake Tower, and. And then there's the central big tower. So it's just cool that they, incorporated different elements of the lore and the mythology into it. So.
>> Rob: But what if you also had a Grayskull and a Snake Mountain? Then you had, like, double.
>> Guido: Well, we've seen people, like on Collector's Call, fantastic TV show who have Eternia set up, and then they put like, Grayskull over in one side and Snake Mountain in the other and Eternia, kind of in the middle. I do not understand why it's not the Palace Attorney, but again, it's so cool. Okay, what's yours?
>> Rob: Okay, well, I'm also bringing one of the big guns. It is, though, something that I actually owned, so I think that gives a little step up.
>> Guido: I don't know. It does, but.
>> Rob: All right, well, I did have it even years after it came out, because this is not the Technodrome. This is the Terror Drome from GI.
>> Guido: Joe Found so confusing. I still. I still mix them up all the time. I wonder who copied who.
>> Rob: Well, what year Dr. Is out earlier. This is 1986.
>> Guido: Oh, okay.
>> Rob: This is earlier. And this is a big, massive playset. So GI Joe were known for some big boys. They had the. The, USS Flag, which is notoriously one of the biggest playsets slash vehicles.
>> Guido: By the other Grail with Attorney, I'd say, oh, totally in action figure collection.
>> Rob: Well, and to get it in all the pieces, I would imagine is a lifetime of. Of searching. But this is a pretty big one as well. It came, you know, it's a big playset because it came with its own vehicle in addition to the playset. So it came with the Fire Bat, which was a jet that actually launched out of the top. So there's a dome at the top with the cobra symbol on it, and you could push up that with a lever, and the dome would open up and there would be the Fire Bat in it. And then the Firebat came with the Avak pilot figure as well. So it came with the. Yes, it worked. Yeah, you. You would push up, so the bottom pieces would fold down, and one of them had a lever there. But there was also, a hidden prison cell that you could put your captured Joes in. So what was cool about this is that you could play on the top. There's gun turrets and all that kind of thing. But then you could also fold down the sides and have more room to play. And I think one of the coolest things, going back to a reoccurring thing that we've been discussing, and one of the benefits of the Joes being three and three quarter size was this actually fel felt pretty to scale with the figures, and you could actually just have multiple figures on the top, and it was still a little bit taller than them, even with that. So I think that element of detail is great. And this was one of the things I did not have it. Of course, when it came Out. But this was one of the earliest things my family probably ever got on ebay. And we got it pretty complete, maybe even complete with the blueprints and the box. We still have it, but sadly, it's some, move. My mother got rid of the box, which, of course, is one of the most valuable parts of it now. We even still have the blueprints, but we don't have the box. And there might be, like, a piece or two that's broken, but it's. It's. It's so massive, I. I don't even know what to do with it. Did you ever play with this?
>> Guido: No. And what is it like? What. What is the Terror Drum?
>> Rob: This is Cobra's headquarters.
>> Guido: Okay.
>> Rob: And if you've seen G.I.
>> Guido: Joe Evil Headquarters, the flag, then is the, like, good headquarters. I guess that's.
>> Rob: Yeah, that's like their. Their aircraft carrier where the Joe's. I mean, the Joes had a couple of other ones, too. That. Another big playset which I'm forgetting the name of. But what's cool is if you go back and watch, which we've already discussed on another episode, G.I. joe the Movie, There's a really great sequence with Python breaking into the Terror Drum early on in the movie. It's like the first thing after the credit sequence. And it's a great showcase for the. For the headquarters.
>> Guido: All right. very cool. I. Guess the Terror Drum is going to win for now. I don't think it wins forever, but I'm willing to say that yes, because we do not have Eternia, and I didn't play with Eternia. The Terror Drome, you have some practical experience with. I'm willing to say it can be our number one winner.
>> Rob: Yay. Well, I'll give you this. If. If we weren't thinking these as playsets again with, like, the emphasis on the ever on play and everything, but almost thinking them as works of art that you're putting out for people to see, then I would totally give it to Eternia because I think it 100% qualifies on that level. But if you're actually thinking of playsets that were interactive and everything else involved, then that's why the Terror Drove has to win.
>> Guido: It does. It does. So, all right, we've got our top ten. Number ten, she Ra's Crystal Castle, number nine, Teenage Ninja Turtles, Technodrome number eight, the Micro Machine, Star Wars Royal Guard number seven, Teenage Mutant Turtle Sewer playset number six, Todd McFarlane's Phantom of the Opera playset number five. He Man Rescue. Masters of the Universe, Snake Mountain. Number four, Thundercats. Cats Lair. Number three, Skull Mountain from Mighty Max. Number two, Masters of the Universe, Eternia. And our number one playset is the GI Joe Terror Drum.
>> Rob: Woohoo. I'm ready to play. Bust out the toys.
>> Guido: I know. Well, now I'm like, we. We need to set up the turret drome. If it's that good, why is it in a garbage bag in the attic? I'm, unclear. So I think I'm wondering where we.
>> Rob: Even kept all these things. Like, maybe that I didn't have too many playsets. I guess you needed a lot of room to have playsets. Maybe that's why I didn't have as many as I thought. Well. And that's a wrap on another round of the Sleepover Retro Countdown show, brought to you by Sleepover Trading Company, which is now open inside the historic community theater in Catskill, New York. Follow us online at Sleepover Trading and@sleepovertraining.com.
>> Guido: Come visit the new shop or follow us online to relive the days when you'd wake up and play with a complex playset. Find the broken pieces, glue them back together, and that was our childhood.
>> Rob: Or you were very smart and never took them out of the sealed box.
>> Guido: Gosh, that's a smart and sad kid.
>> Rob: Yes, that's true. That's true.
>> Guido: Be kind. Rewind your childhood.