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.

This is a first for Toy Aisle Trolls. Monkey Boy sends in this absolutely bizarre find.

Writes Monkey Boy:

hey poe, attached are two files that depict by far the oddest TAT i’ve seen yet. i’ll set up the story: i was at TRU and i came across this MOTUC mer-man, weirdly just kind of tossed onto a shelf somewhere between transformers and GI joe. it seemed strange that this figure was at TRU since i had never heard about MOTUC being in stores except as part of the MOTUC/DC 2packs,, and although i don’t collect MOTUC, i thought hey, might as well see how much TRU wants for it. so i scan the barcode at the price finder and it comes up $34.99. i almost laugh out loud but then i notice that the product description on the screen says “MOTUC/DC 2 pack” or something like that, and that’s when i notice things are looking fishy (no pun intended). while as far as i can tell the figure looked fine and the package itself didnt seem to have been tampered with, i did notice that the “only at TRU” sticker seemed to be peeling a bit, and the barcode i had scanned was a separate sticker placed OVER the normal barcode on the insert beneath the blister. soooo i carefully peel the barcode sticker off and attempt to scan the actual insert UPC and it comes up not found.

here’s what i think happened: somebody bought a MOTUC/DC 2pack, possibly the mer-man 2pack for all i know, and then put the sticker barcode for it as well as the “only at TRU” sticker on their sealed mattycollector mer-man, which they returned to TRU masquerading as the original 2 pack they had bought. for whatever reason whoever scanned the return didn’t think it odd that a single 7″ figure would cost $35, but hey, that’s retail i guess. what i don’t get is why someone would return a perfectly good mer-man. the figure’s sword, trident and both heads were included and the figure didn’t seem broken at all, and honestly i probably would have bought it if it was a reasonable price, but dang. you’d think the guy would have just tried to sell his mer-man on ebay rather than scam TRU.

since i was on a lunch break at the time, i didn’t get to notify any sales associate, besides i’m not sure any employees would even understand what i was talking about if i tried. i can’t imagine anyone would want to buy it, so i assume it’ll just sit there for eternity.

-monkey boy

Bizarre…BUT, awesomeness of the MOTUC Mer-Man aside, no one wants to pay $35 for him. And the truth is the guy got at least $10 off his Mer-Man and Aquaman. So he’s still a troll, pure and simple. But he sure goes to great lengths to prove his trollness.