What's up, y'all.
I'm Langston and I am honored to be joined
by the spokesperson for Madame Tussauds,
the one, the only Ben Shapiro.
Ben, how are you? - I'm doing good.
Thanks for having me here. - Yes.
Thanks for joining us. How is your Comic Con?
How is it treating you?
Yeah, it's been awesome.
Really, really great exhibitors here.
But, I mean, you know who the best one is.
Yes.
I think we might.
Now, Madame Tussauds has had a longstanding partnership
with Marvel, helping to bring our characters
to life almost really lifelike.
But something very special is happening at New
York Comic Con this year.
Can you tell us about Madame Tussauds' presence here
on the Comic Con floor?
Yeah, absolutely.
So we've had a relationship with Marvel going back probably
to the origins of the MCU, creating figures from Iron Man
to the latest figure that's just debuted today at Comic Con.
It's Loki, God of Mischief.
Yes.
All right, so I want to talk about it
because everyone-- you can get up-- you
come down to the booth.
You can get up close and very close to these figures,
and see all the incredible amazing details that
go into making these figures.
So tell us a bit about the historic debut of the God
of Mischief himself, Loki.
BEN SHAPIRO: Yeah.
I mean, there is no better figure to bring into the Hall
of Heroes than Loki.
He's not quite a hero, I have to say,
but with the streaming show on Disney Plus, "Loki",
everyone has their fan favorite villain back in the spotlight.
And there was really this moment where
we knew we can't have a Marvel area in the attraction
if we don't have Loki.
So they spent, what?
Four, six months working on this figure?
Tons of artists, tons of measurements, reference photos.
And you can check it out here in person.
Loki looks incredible.
These figures are so detailed.
Do you have a favorite detail on the Loki figure,
like, oh, if you see it, you've got to check this out
because they knocked this particular detail out
of the park?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I don't know.
If you look in his eyes-- and it is based on Tom Hiddleston--
you can see, like, Loki has seen some stuff, right?
No, I think it's the scepter that Loki is holding.
It's based on the same one from "Avengers,"
from the movie in 2012.
It has a little light up effect when
it's plugged in the attraction.
So get up close, take a look.
These are figures for you to take
a picture with just like the character's next to you.
And this is not the only place that Loki is going to be.
I believe this is only one stop on Loki's journey here
in New York, right?
Yeah, this is the official debut of Loki
for Madame Tussauds New York.
And right after Comic Con, he's going
to move a couple blocks down the street to Madame Tussauds
in New York.
LANGSTON BELTON: And, of course, that
is not the only figure that is here at the Marvel booth.
We have as well the King of Wakanda
himself, the Black Panther.
BEN SHAPIRO: Yeah, it's true.
Black Panther is going to be here.
The King has arrived.
I see you have your shirt on, so we're in the spirit.
There's no better character to bring
right now than Black Panther.
Everyone knows the movie comes out next month.
Marvel Studios' "Black Panther, Wakanda Forever."
So it was really a fitting opportunity.
I think that when you look at the Marvel characters,
there's no movie and franchise like "Black Panther"
that has touched hearts and minds like this one has.
It's truly a cultural phenomenon.
So we're super excited to bring Black
Panther here and give fans that one-of-a-kind
encounter with the king.
Get real up close and personal.
And maybe see a little fleck of that vibranium in there.
Ooh, yes.
Now, for folks that come down here,
and they have questions about the figures and Madame
Tussauds, you all have people here
that can answer those questions, give that information out.
Yeah? - Yeah, absolutely.
We're going to have staff here that
can answer all your questions.
I know you'll have some about the
behind the scenes, how these characters come to life.
And some of the people that are going to be here
are actually the artists that work on the figures themselves.
So definitely ask all things about wax.
LANGSTON BELTON: Ben, thank you so much for joining us.
And all of you out there, please get down to the Marvel booth
here at the Javits Center.
Check out Madame Tussauds' installation here.
And then go a couple of blocks over
to check out Madame Tussauds Times Square location
because it is the coolest.
I go there often and frequently because it's
fun to see all of my favorite Marvel characters.
Ben, thank you so much for joining us.
Yeah, of course.
We'll see you there!
I'm Langston and this is Marvel, your universe.
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