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@poeghostal.com.
Submitted by: Geeky Vixen
Why am I nearly certain, without even checking, that Iron Man actually was a member of the Fantastic Four at one point? Anyway, apparently this troll needed a new girlfriend. –PG
nerdbot
Remember, though, that we're looking at these from the perspective of fans who care about these things. I used to think that the [understandable] apathy of retail workers was enough to explain them taking returns of stuff like this. Now I tend to think it's simply a lack of interest or knowledge in this stuff (I suppose 'apathy' still fits) among the general, non-collecting population. We may look at this and say: "C'mon… Iron Man!?! How can you not see something is amiss?" While I think the average person at returns will just look at it and check for obvious signs of tampering and make sure all the little plastic guys are in place.
I may have mentioned this here in the past (perhaps submitted as a T.A.T.), but within the past couple of years, I tried to show a Toys R Us employee that a Star Wars pilot pack had been swapped with a much older POTF pilot pack. I showed him both the trolled set and the correct set, telling him, "See? They've been swapped." He replied, "They look the same." It took a minute or so to get him to look closely and understand that he was looking at two completely different sets of figures. And he was a TRU employee; all they deal with are toys! (Well, for the most part. They certainly deal with far more toys than the average Target or Walmart worker.)
When I think about the lines with which I'm not at all familiar, I realize that a troll might be able to fool me with a Transformers or G.I. Joe swap. Heck, even a Clone Wars swap with a different version of a character? I don't follow that line so much, and that might get me. All of which is to say, I'm not surprised to see this kind of trollery anymore, and we should cut the store clerks some slack.
Black Arbor
You know, as much as I like the "Toy Aisle Trolls" segment I have a hard time believing some of these. I mean, some of these are so wrong that someone working there has to notice. Sometimes I think these are staged (I could be wrong, though)
Poe Ghostal
The only reason I tend not to worry that they're staged is: who the hell would do that, and why? Other than initials or a handle, I don't even identify the person who sent it in.
That said, I can understand people who worry that the person who did it might have sent in the pic. Generally though, the tone of the emails I receive, and the people I receive them from, tends to make me think that isn't the case.