Today we’d like to introduce you to Craig Roberts.
Hi Craig, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have always had a collector’s spirit. Collecting action figures from my favorite cartoons as a kid. Buying packs of baseball cards to try to get every player from my favorite teams. Fast forward 20 years later, I found myself going to flea markets every weekend trying to find old Nintendo games I had growing up that I wanted to revisit. Then that turned into trying to find all the action figures I had everything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Masters of the Universe, Real Ghostbusters, etc… In 2016 I decided that I wanted to share my love of vintage toys and retro games with the rest of the world, so I started a YouTube channel and name it “Not Another Retro Channel”. I named it that because at the time there was so many channels that had “Retro” in their channel name and I wanted to stand apart from that. Also, I’m kinda taking a stab at myself at the same time because that is exactly where my passion lies within the retro world. I wasn’t really expecting my channel to ever really “take off” I do because it’s fun for me. As time went on, I gained viewers and made lifelong friends along the way. Meeting people from around the world and learning about their collecting journey. I met a YouTuber from Belgium he has a channel called “Ed’s Retro Geek Out,” and he introduced me to another YouTuber, “Grecofabulous”. We all clicked instantly and met up and started a series on YouTube called “Attic Invaders,” where we raid attics, basements, flea markets in attempt to find vintage treasures from the past. We also drove across the country stopping everywhere and anywhere for a chance to find vintage toy pieces for our collections. We even ran into Robocop stranded on a highway in Illinois! Attic Invaders has been a fun series; we have even gotten some attention from production companies which is bonkers! This past year a local filmmaker David Ryan contacted me to see if I would be interested in making a horror short that included vintage toys as a backstory, so I was immediately intrigued. We got our crew together along with local actors and my YouTube buddies and made the short! We all worked so well together and had more stories to tell, so we decided to make a feature film, and we called it “Retro Freaks”. We premiered it October 19th at the Texas Theater in Dallas, and that was definitely a high point for myself. Seeing how all of this happened just from collecting toys and sharing my story on YouTube has been insane.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
YouTube definitely has its ups and downs. You have to continually put out quality content to stay relevant in the YouTube world. It basically became a part-time job for myself. It’s just like anything else in life. If you want to succeed you have to put in the work. You can’t put out a funny cat video and expect to become YouTube famous. As far as filming for Retro Freaks goes, we had our struggles. If it was battling weather, schedules, money at times, it definitely had its stressful times. But we are very fortunate to have a very passionate and focused team. David Ryan and Michael Goldermann wrote and directed the film. Tiffany Skye Dodson was the lead actress and also very active heading up our social media presence and making every person in the cast and crew feel a part of the team.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m very thankful for what my life has become. Thankful for a family that supports what I do; that’s the most important thing for me. At the end of the day, I sell toys, make YouTube videos about things I’m passionate about, and now I’m making movies with the best crew you could ask for. I’m truly living my dream, and I could not be any more thankful for that.
What matters most to you? Why?
As I said before, support is what matters the most. If you do not have people that support you every single day and give you constructive criticism to help you be better, then you will not grow, or it may take you longer to get where you want to be in life.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/retrofreaksthemovie?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/NotAnotherRetroChannel
