Toy Aisle Trolls is a feature highlighting acts of vandalism to in-store toy items. If you find a ruined package, a stolen figure, a swapped-out figure, or any other such acts, take a photo (cell phone photos are fine if they’re not blurry) and email them to poe AT poeghostal.com. Also, please note: I’m deliberately being over-the-top with my condemnation of these people–I don’t actually wish bodily harm upon them. Just severe mental anguish.
Poester MM sends this one in:
Saw this about a week ago at Walmart. Not sure exactly what kind of toy they’ve crammed in there, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t the right one.
Yes, that cycle is a tad too not-insane-looking for a Power Rangers vehicle–here’s the real one.
Really, trolls? This is what it’s come to–stealing Power Rangers vehicles no one wants? Is there even any thrill in this? Sad really.
They guy has a crappy Power Ranger toy, it's punishment enough.
Actually, no, every time someone says the words 'Power Rangers' around him, he turns into the pink ranger and shouts 'HO!' at the top of his lungs.
Then defecates himself.
@Fengschwing:
I think you summed up just what this guy deserves.
Eye thenk ewe.
Looks like what a kid would do inside a unattended toy aisle.Punishment would be whenever he goes in public he would emanate the theme music of "Bulk and Skull" non-stop.
This doesn't even make sense to me. It's not like Power Rangers toys are all that expensive, and most of the Power Rangers collectors I know of would either a) not want this at all or b) want to buy it outright in order to support the line. This seems more like something a poor parent would do — little Billy wants a new Power Rangers toy, so unemployed dad buys this and replaces it with an old toy Billy doesn't touch anymore.
Kinda makes me wonder how many of these toy swaps are really perpetuated by collectors.
This was found at Wal-Mart you say? I'm shocked, SHOCKED that such a thing would be perpetrated at the world's greatest retailer. This shall be reported and investigated at every level until the cause of this is discovered and the guilty parties prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Procedures to prevent such an atrocious disregard for customers and manufacturers will be implemented at once.
I think this one is totally fake.
Maybe standards in the USA differ from the UK but, the box is ruined and no shop would accept a return on on something like this.
@Mark
Guy who sent in the pic here. It's totally real. And it's actually not the worst I've seen. At K-Mart, I once saw a couple of those Star Wars figure comic packs with one of the figures missing, and the packaging mangled and covered in tape. Apparently, the employees aren't paid enough to care.
I have to echo some of Mark's sentiments to say that I don't think ANY of the trolls previously shown would get away with their antics in the UK.
If something gets opened and returned it NEVER goes back on the shelf here.
The folk in your stores must really be getting a bum deal in the pay stakes to not give that much of a fig.
Damn shame on all fronts.
@MM: I apologise for my wording of that, I was not meaning you or anyhting, I was meaning it in the sense of my shock 'like that has got to be fake.'
It is really sad that people would do that. It is also really bad for the store that they hire people who don't care.
Fengschwing can back me up on this, but in my experience, the only time here you can take something back to the shop and exchange it is.
1. It is the wrong item bought in error, but it still needs to be mint in sealed box as it was purchased.
2. It is broken, missing parts or faulty.
you british boys and your common sense or expectations of services rendered…. it's so CUTE!! here in the brother state, we don't care… i've seen beaten up, destroyed, falling apart pairs of shoes put in new shoe boxes and returned, no questions asked. i've seen half drunk sodas returned and w/ minimal verbal exchange, the bottle was exchanged out for a new one. it is that easy, because the walmart emploee is a) usually functioning on a less than complete education b) being paid the absolute minimum they can be by federal law… and then taxes are withheld. c) usually being overseen by "go getters" who, as humans, are so odious and objectionable, that any means whatsoever to "get back at them" is justifiable. see, things work differently here… there's a cultural atrophy happening in the states that's been brewing basically since the late 60's when the people, if was verifiably proven, are unimportant to their government and the established power structure… since then, we're slowly devolving into mindless consumers who simply put don't care any more about bettering anything more involved than our personal list of possessions. the minute we turned our collective backs on our elected officials and our fellow americans, we got the corporate atmosphere currently at work, the shoddy government, and the general preference for ignorance that these kind of "aisle troll" acts illustrate. trust me, these are but one tiny symptom of a must larger disease.
@dayraven: I've always thought they took the stuff back because it's impossible to prove that it wasn't already that way when it was purchased — one could always claim that one just wasn't paying attention when he/she initially got it. What really miffs me isn't so much that the stores take the product back, but that they put it back on the shelves when something is clearly amiss. And yeah, I too have seen boxes looking way worse than this — even if the product were correct, stuff like that should be removed or discounted (though in the latter case you run the risk of people banging up boxes themselves and then asking for the discount).
We never put broken or previously opened returns back on the shelves when I worked at KB Toys, but I guess that's why KB is gone and Walmart continues to thrive.
@dayraven Well said!
You lot obviously need us back in charge.
I'll have the royal family shipped over at once.
No really, take 'em.
@Fengschwing: what would that help? i think we have a capable leader right now, but surely you guys get international news… the pres can't lead by himself, and even his own people are one step away from licking their fingers and jamming them into light sockets.
@Wes: i don't think so kemosabe… walmart's return policy is less strict than nearly any other retailer, big box or otherwise, currently out there… BUT… even they have standards… goods that are obviously tampered w/ are not suppossed to be put back on the shelves… and things like severly damaged packaging and the item contained in the package not being the item that was put there by the manufacturer should definitely be raising flags. some of the items we've seen on aisle trolls have indeed been in condition to be returned to walmart, but rare indeed are the ones that should have been put back out for sale. like this one, the packaging is obviously damaged and the toys in the box aren't the toys on the back of the box… this could have been returned, but SHOULD have been sent back to the manufacturer to get walmart's money back, not put back out for sale. that's bad employees flexing the rules cuz "they can."
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