CONTACTABOUTFACEBOOKTWITTERPODCAST IPHONE APPANDROID APPAMAZON APPRSS
Pro Wrestling Torch
Pro Wrestling Torch Reaches The Most Wrestling Fans Every Week: #1 in iTunes • #1 on iPhone and iPad • #1 on Android • #1 on Kindle
GOT THE PWTORCH APP YET?
iPhone & iPad
Android
Amazon Kindle
Windows Phone
PWTorch Phone App
THE SPECIALISTS
COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: Interview with Wrestling Figure Podcaster Matthew Goldberg

Feb 20, 2015 - 4:10:39 PM
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO BOOKMARK US & VISIT US DAILY


By Michael Moore, PWTorch Collectibles specialist

In Brief: A new podcast gives a voice to wrestling toy collectors.

For some, wrestling figures are mere toys. For others, they’re valuable collectibles. But for Matthew Goldberg, they’re mediums for his artistic endeavors.

Goldberg, a film school graduate student, had his work featured in the PWTorch Collectibles Column last year. He’s an avid photographer, and also recently launched The Figure Mark, a new podcast for collectors of wrestling figures and toys.

Goldberg recently spoke with PWTorch Collectibles specialist Michael Moore about his new podcast and other projects.

- Moore: Tell me a little bit about The Figure Mark and how it came about.

Goldberg: The Figure Mark is a monthly podcast that focuses on the latest wrestling figure news, discussion, and topics. I wanted to provide another alternative to people receiving their news and talk about the latest figures besides just the forums, Facebook, and Twitter.

Since my Twitter (@WWETNAfigures) has become very popular - over 5,000 followers - I wanted to find another way to actually discuss topics people talk about on the forums. I noticed the wrestling figure podcast community dwindled years ago. There may be a few others, but not as popular or less known. I wanted to be able to have my contacts from the wrestling and toy industry on the show to discuss news and reveal new things we may not have heard about yet, as well as discuss troubling issues and clarify things, such as the whole controversy over the Wicked Cool Toys (WCT) Authentic Scale Cages coming out or how figures are budgeted.

Usually my friends at Ringside (Collectibles) are the only ones to talk to these people, so I wanted to do the same in between when they do, to get our collector voices heard just as much.

- Moore: When did you launch the first episode?

Goldberg: The first episode was launched at the end of January. My goal right now while I’m busy in graduate school is to release one at the end of every month ... so that I can gather all the news and updates for that month and wrap it all up in one podcast. The thing I noticed was that soon as I’d go to report something in the middle of the month, literally the next day something new would be revealed or leaked and my news would be outdated.

- Moore: What kind of response have you gotten to The Figure Mark so far?

Goldberg: The response was great; I wish it got a little more traction, but I’m not complaining. A lot of people were very interested and sent in a lot of questions. The only complaint was that I only had three or four questions answered, but that’s because I only have the guests for about 30 minutes or so. I only have time to ask so much. However, I have forwarded unanswered questions to the guest, Jeremy Padawer from WCT, so they can be answered and revealed in the upcoming episode.

- Moore: Where can people find The Figure Mark?

Goldberg: People can currently hear the show at SoundCloud.com/TheFigureMark where they can download it and listen on the go, or they can listen to it at my YouTube channel. I am working on getting it to iTunes; it just requires a few episodes under the belt first.

- Moore: What types of guests do you hope to have on?

Goldberg: I hope to have a lot of people from the wrestling industry and wrestling toy industry on it. I actually just locked a current WWE Superstar who fans love for the third episode. An announcement about that will be revealed soon at Facebook.com/TheFigureMark and @TheFigureMark once everything is set.

But, future guests I’d like to have would be friends from Mattel and WWE, Jakks, Lisa Marie Varon (Victoria/Tara), Elijah Burke, Eric Bischoff, Matt Morgan, and many others. The guest on the next episode is Brian Shields, who is the co-author of a lot of the WWE books like the WWE Encyclopedia, 30 Years of WrestleMania, and others, so I’m excited for that. He’s a cool guy and a friend. I’m also interested in having fellow collectors and other wrestling figure people - like Grim’s Toy Show, for example - who collect heavily and know the community well enough to hold a conversation. I think this will be a lot of fun and a nice alternative.

- Moore: Your film work has been featured in the Torch before. Are you still producing videos?

Goldberg: I am currently producing a short narrative film that will have an ex-WWE and ex-TNA pro wrestler in it. More news will come out of that soon, but he’s a good friend of mine and I’m ecstatic to have him on board. I’ve been producing/directing a few live action short films for graduate school the past several months, and I’m currently developing new content for my YouTube channel; with my new YouTube network I belong to Collective Digital Studios. CDS has a lot of wrestlers in their network so that could be really fun for future content, perhaps for the podcast as well.

- Moore: Tell me a little bit about your wrestling photography.

Goldberg: Since I’ve been so occupied with graduate school - I graduate in June with a (Master of Fine Arts) in Film, I started to do wrestling figure photography instead of stop-motion animation (since) it is less time consuming but just as cool. I animated for WWE’s YouTube show Action Figure Showdown for a year or so and took a break from that to heavily focus as I finish up school, so photography was my next best option and people seem to really like it.

I created a group on Facebook called Wrestling Figure Photography where I have some great figure photographers work with me to admin the group and help teach beginners and novices how to bring their photography to the next level. Anyone is welcome to join it; just ask to join on Facebook. You can see a lot of my photography on my Instagram, mbg1211, with over 2,000 followers.

I think it’s a new hobby I’ve discovered and it seems to be inspiring others, which is wonderful, so I’m definitely going to keep at it. I’m working on developing a YouTube series revolving around my photography so people can learn techniques and so on. I am also planning to do some live stream photography on my YouTube channel where people can see how the photos are created.

[ FYI: Keep up with Matthew Goldberg through social media:

IMDB: www.imdb.com/name/nm5726703/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/mbg1211
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MBGFilms
Twitter: www.twitter.com/MBGFilms
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mbg1211
Add me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/mbgfilms1211
Twitter: www.twitter.com/WWETNAfigures
Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheFigureMark
Facebook: www.facebook.com/WrestlingFigureWednesday
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CrashCollisionWrestling
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheFigureMark ]

Collectibles News

Topps has released its latest wrestling product, 2015 Topps WWE. The new product is white-hot with collectors thanks to many first-time signers and unique relics. Look for more information in Tuesday’s PWTorch Collectibles Column.

PWTorch Collectibles specialist Michael Moore can be reached at michaelmoorewriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MMooreWriter.


We suggest these recent related articles...
10/5 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Natalya vs. Paige, Owens vs. Cara, Stephanie McMahon, Sasha Banks, Xavier Woods
COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: The History of Foam Hands in Pro Wrestling
9/28 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Kane's Split Personality, Divas Revolution, Heyman & Big Show, Reigns vs. Wyatt
prowrestling.net
CLICK HERE FOR EVEN MORE PW.NET HEADLINES


CLICK TO EMAIL THIS ARTICLE
CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO MAIN LISTING

NEW! SIGN UP FOR FREE PWTORCH BREAKING NEWS EMAIL ALERTS
BECOME A PWTORCH VIP MEMBER
-FORMER MEMBERS LOGIN HERE TO RENEW
-NEW MEMBERS CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
SELECT BY ARTICLES CATEGORY
SEARCH PWTORCH.COM



CLICK HERE FOR LIST OF UPCOMING PRO WRESTLING EVENTS
MORE HEADLINES AT AFFILIATE SITES
MMATorch
LATEST HEADLINES - CLICK TO READ CLICK HERE FOR MORE MMATORCH HEADLINES



LATEST HEADLINES - CLICK TO READ CLICK HERE FOR EVEN MORE INC HEADLINES

_
LATEST FREE AUDIO SHOWS - CLICK TO LISTEN VIEW MORE PWTORCH LIVECAST EPISODES
DOWNLOAD PWTORCH LIVECAST APP
SUBSCRIBE TO PWTORCH LIVECAST IN ITUNES


ABOUT US

THE TORCH REACHES MORE COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT FANS THAN ANY OTHER SOURCE

PWTorch editor Wade Keller has covered pro wrestling full time since 1987 starting with the Pro Wrestling Torch print newsletter. PWTorch.com launched in 1999 and the PWTorch Apps launched in 2008.

He has conducted "Torch Talk" insider interviews with Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Steve Austin, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Eric Bischoff, Jesse Ventura, Lou Thesz, Jerry Lawler, Mick Foley, Jim Ross, Paul Heyman, Bruno Sammartino, Goldberg, more.

He has interviewed big-name players in person incluiding Vince McMahon (at WWE Headquarters), Dana White (in Las Vegas), Eric Bischoff (at the first Nitro at Mall of America), Brock Lesnar (after his first UFC win).

He hosted the weekly Pro Wrestling Focus radio show on KFAN in the early 1990s and hosted the Ultimate Insiders DVD series distributed in retail stories internationally in the mid-2000s including interviews filmed in Los Angeles with Vince Russo & Ed Ferrara and Matt & Jeff Hardy. He currently hosts the most listened to pro wrestling audio show in the world, (the PWTorch Livecast, top ranked in iTunes)


REACHING 1 MILLION+ UNIQUE USERS PER MONTH
500 MILLION CLICKS & LISTENS PER YEAR
MILLIONS OF PWTORCH NEWSLETTERS SOLD
PWTORCH STAFF

EDITORS:
Wade Keller, editor
(kellerwade@gmail.com)

James Caldwell, assistant editor
(pwtorch@gmail.com)

STAFF COLUMNISTS:
Bruce Mitchell (since 1990)
Pat McNeill (since 2001)
Greg Parks (since 2007)
Sean Radican (since 2003)

We also have a great team of
TV Reporters
and Specialists and Artists.

PWTORCH VIP MEMBERSHIP

PWTorch offers a VIP membership for $10 a month (or less with an annual sub). It includes nearly 25 years worth of archives from our coverage of pro wrestling dating back to PWTorch Newsletters from the late-'80s filled with insider secrets from every era that are available to VIPers in digital PDF format and Keller's radio show from the early 1990s.

Also, new exclusive top-shelf content every day including a new VIP-exclusive weekly 16 page digital magazine-style (PC and iPad compatible) PDF newsletter packed with exclusive articles and news.

The following features come with a VIP membership which tens of thousands of fans worldwide have enjoyed for many years...

-New Digital PWTorch Newsletter every week
-3 New Digital PDF Back Issues from 5, 10, 20 years ago
-Over 60 new VIP Audio Shows each week
-Ad-free access to all PWTorch.com free articles
-VIP Forum access with daily interaction with PWTorch staff and well-informed fellow wrestling fans
-Tons of archived audio and text articles
-Decades of Torch Talk insider interviews in transcript and audio formats with big name stars.


**SIGN UP FOR VIP ACCESS HERE**

CONTACTABOUTFACEBOOKTWITTERPODCASTIPHONE APPANDROID APPAMAZON APPRSS
VIP SIGN-UP
VIP LOGIN
THE TORCH: #1 IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE | © 1999-2013 TDH Communications Inc. • All rights reserved -- PRIVACY POLICY