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.
Reader 3B sends in this gem:
Great. A crappy 2003 Mattel Batman variation. With what’s clearly a Batman, and not Aquaman, head. I’m guessing these things happen in the actual store as opposed to being returned with these ridiculous figures…but maybe I’m being naïve.
wesitron
I preordered Dante's Inferno to get the NECA Gamestop exclusive figure, then returned it a few days later and kept the figure. Sure, he's in stores now but at the time he was only supposed to be seeing retail release overseas.
I don't know if it made it right or not. I used the credit to buy the new Mass Effect, so they still got my cash. Gamestop has pretty much monopolized the new and used retail game industry anyway, so I really didn't feel bad about it.
If I had any point, it's that when you're addicted to plastic crack, you do stupid crap to get it because whether or not it's true, the crime seems victimless.
And everybody likes to stick it to "the corporations." And the Illuminati are real.
dean
Unfortunately, many employees at the return desk don't know action figures and are easy to dupe. I used to be a manager for a nationwide toy retailer. It was frustrating to see what some of our employees would accept at the returns desk. They were not educated about, nor did they care about figures. Plus, you learn real fast the customer simply needs to say they bought it that way to take the culpability off them. The really charming ones will ask for the corporate number when you deny them the refund. 95% of the time, corporate will side with the guest, and you get a black mark on your record for not satisfying them initially. Sometimes the good-guys do win, but I'm afraid the system favors the thieves. Nothing you could show in Toy Aisle Trolls will ever surprise me after working retail. I could tell some stories…
3B
@ ero
We're talking about plastic playthings, not diamonds or gold or national secrets. And we're talking about a store where the shit that's there is getting trashed by customers and employees who don't give a damn. We've all seen stuff with clearance stickers layered on after several markdowns. Ross, Walmart and least of all Mattel, aren't affected by stolen action figures. We're not talking case loads, either.
They could not care less, that's why they restock these things, with the same price tag and continue on their merry way. Even Poe mentioned it, it's clearly a BATMAN. Who doesn't know Batman?
DrNightmare
@dayraven: Well, I don't trust you, stranger! 😛
sympathy4drDoom
i kinda want that batman for my aquaman shelf now
thanks toy aisle trolls…you have encouraged me to buy one on ebay
dayraven
@DrNightmare: "I just don’t care. And morals are overrated."
i'm truly sorry to hear that doc. trust me, they're not.
PrfktTear
I guess I don’t understand why they bother to swap the figures? Why not just outright take the one they want? Other than I suppose to keep the store “blissfully” unaware there is any theft so the Troll can keep doing what they’re doing.
Too-Man-E-Faces
Sometimes I cannot help wondering whether or not this column actually encourages the toy aisle trolls in their mischievous doings by giving them all the stage and public attention they do not deserve…
George
Yea, on those price checker things, I found it on the clearance section, but yea I always find good stuff at target, I just never have money to get it, I had seen the Chemo wave for 7 or 8 bucks each. But I had the wave already and I didn't find another GA…which is what I need since my sucks oh well.
DrNightmare
@george: Wow, what did you scan, the barcode on the package? Maybe they were supposed to ship that thing out and accidentally left it there, haha, nice find!
DrNightmare
Yar, it’s a pretty lame thing to do, but oh well.
If I acted all nice and honest while working there, I would just make everyone else nervous that I’d rat them out. The job sucked already, and adding an uncomfortable atmosphere would just make it unbearable.
Not that I’m justifying it, I don’t care that I did it. I’d steal from a baby if I thought I could get away with it. 😛
DrNightmare
Sorry to burst your bubble DR, you can do nothing to retaliate. I can gouge people's eyes and run like the dickens in a heartbeat ;D Well, I guess I'd be screwed if you wear glasses…rats!
I'm not making excuses, I just don't care. And morals are overrated.
Hell, let's share some more: A kid was looking at the DCSH figs we had one day, all Steel and Blue Supergirls (I think I told Esbat about it a long time ago), but his mom didn't have any more money for it, they were just there for the sale on school-uniforms we had. So the kid was all depressed, but he wasn't screaming like all the other brats that come to the store, he just looked dead, lol. So I told the mom to come to the register with the toy in about 10 minutes when my break was over and I'd give her a discount. They came and I just pretended to scan the toy, so the kid got it for free.
Was that illegal? Yeah, was it "wrong"? I don't care.
(Oh and hey DR, I think someone wanted your opinion over at IAT.net on the Mattel WWE FlexForce figures)
And I don't sell babies, I eat them!
george
A little off topic, but I found Icicle and that screaming lady from the public enemies line for a clearance price of $0.00! Well not exactly. I scanned it an it read it as 0.00, but it had a 3.24 price sticker, so they lady charged me that. Whatever the reason at some point me and my girlfriends thought we were going to take these gems for free-99, thought I'd share with those who care.
ero
Just for the record, 3B, yes, he did do something wrong.
He said: "So, what I would do is swap figures’ packages sometimes on my break, so I could buy the cool stuff I wanted at a way cheaper price."
That's stealing. It's pretty simple.
I've done stupid, immoral things in my day. We all have. But I feel remorse and shame for the stupid stuff I've done. I see quite the opposite here.
DrNightmare
Ok, I’ll share…
When I worked at Ross, sometimes they would get cool figures I wanted but were still expensive (I’m just cheap I guess). Since I was one of the people who received new stuff and stocked it, other employees would ask me to hold certain stuff for them. Yeah, it’s against the rules but no one gave a crap (the manager and supervisors were all fired recently because they were stealing merch, lol).
So, what I would do is swap figures’ packages sometimes on my break, so I could buy the cool stuff I wanted at a way cheaper price. Trust me, it was easier/safer to do that than switch price tags, because when the inventory people came around, if they saw a bunch of mis-matched price tags, they were gonna get suspicious because that would be our fault. If the toys weren’t in the proper package, we could just blame the customers.
Also, if you just steal a toy outright, the store has to report that as a loss. But, if you switch toys and buy one, the store doesn’t lose money, but it loses a little if you mark down the price on the other toy you swapped because it’s “damaged”, so someone is willing to buy it.
3B
@ Esbat: LMAO!
I don't feel sorry for Mattel, Walmart or Ross. It's the honest, hard-working collectors that lose out. My friend sent me this pic and if had been the correct figure, I would have asked him to buy it for me. But, sadly this bogus 2pm was the only one left.
Nightmare didn't do anything wrong. We're talking about f'n Ross. It's like a retail sewer. Most of the shit that ends up there isn't wanted by anyone. I took advantage of the cheap prices on several of the ML 2pks they had this past Winter. At least he pad something for them. In my area kids (some adults, too) will just tear into the packages and steal the toys.
Esbat
Dr. Nightmare once stole my baby. Customized it, and sold it as a Deadpool variant.
TripleM
Was some guy really that hard-up for that crummy Aquaman repaint? Black Manta in his Super Friends togs is the real prize in that boxed set!
dayraven
just remember there senor nightmare… someday, that baby you steal from might be mine… and that would be just plain tragic… for you.
the "everyone else is doing it excuse" makes you, morally, the lowest kind of slime. fortunately, we don't know each other, so you're simply another anonymous villain loose in the world, a moral lesson to tell my kids over a campfire… a boogeyman to be overcome and forgotten. ain't the internet great? at least be glad that i can't think any less of you… unless you're now a lawyer. 😉
Reverend Ender
@DrNightmare: Eh, I don't blame you. I would prepare for some serious internet hatred from others though.