Toy Aisle Trolls > Mark of the Goon

June 21, 2011 | Poe

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.

Submitted by: Engineernerd

The Problem: The toy has been stolen from the package.

What It’s Supposed to Look Like: This.

Engineernerd writes: “I was surprised by this scene in the toy aisle this morning while looking for Captain America stuff. This dead beat could be bothered to even exchange it or put the box back together on this Transformer. This is lower than troll. I should mention this happened between 7PM and 6AM as I was there at both times. I’m guessing it wasn’t a kid.”

Karmic Payback: Well, this is just flat-out theft. It lacks any of the villainous imagination of the typical troll; but what I think bothers me the most is the complete lack of effort. It’s like, you just don’t get it, do you, douche? Anyway, for his karmic payback: after death, his obituary will read like a New Yorker review of a Michael Bay film.

CoilCon slithering through the Midwest in July

June 20, 2011 | Poe

Poester Southzen sent in an email asking to spread the word about CoilCon, the annual convention of the Midwest-based G.I. Joe fan club Coil Club. Now in its sophomore year, the 2011 CoilCon will be held in late July at Kokomo Toys and Collectibles in Kokomo, Indiana.

From the press release:

The 2nd annual COIL Con GI Joe Swap Meet and Get Together will be held on Saturday, July 23, 2011.  Admission is FREE and open to the public.  There will be FREE hot dogs and drinks throughout the day in addition to great prizes, giveaways, games for the kids and contests for adults.

Like last year, Joe fans from all around the Midwest will be bringing GI Joe related items to sell and trade in our FREE vendor tents.  That’s right, there is NO charge for vendor set up!!  Even if you are not a vendor and want to sell some items, there will be tables for private sellers too!

Fans from far away as Utah and many online community regulars from Hiss Tank, Joe Battlelines, Joe Sightings, YoJoe, Joe Intel, Joe Declassified and Terrordome attended COIL Con I sharing rare and prototype pieces of their collections.

We are pleased to announce the second of our special guest joining us this year.  Pre-production collector and Modern Era “documentarian” Gary Head will be on hand to join in the festivities of the day.  We will also be joined by published author James Kavanaugh, Jr., with copies of his new GI Joe reference guide!  See our GUEST page on the menu bar for more details.

Available THIS year will be a Convention Exclusive COIL Commando, Codename: Sidewinder.  Quantity will be extremely limited.  Price has not yet been announced.  It will only be available at COIL Con II!

Come early to shop, stay late for the conversation!  COIL Con II will be a GREAT TIME!

 

Odds ‘n Ends > June 20, 2011

June 20, 2011 | Poe

  • Mattycollector is having a “Mad Matty Monday” next week on the 27th. The idea is for $40, you get three items that exceed the $40 value. There’s a DC set, a MOTU set, and a Ghostbusters set. One thing to keep in mind is that the third item in the MOTU set could be display stands, and the DC set could contain JLU items as well as DCUC items. I’ll be curious to see how these do. I suspect the MOTU sets will sell out fairly quickly.
  • Figure previews around the Web: Pixel Dan reviews Clawful, Megator and Young Justice Robin; Fwoosh has  SDCC Movie Masters Kilowog and DCUC Series 17.
  • Saw X-Men: First Class this weekend, and quite enjoyed it. I think Marvel and its licensors may have made a mistake by not giving more credit to this flick, though admittedly there aren’t many toy-friendly designs in it–maybe diamond Emma Frost, Mystique, and Beast. Much has been made of January Jones’ mediocre acting, and here’s my contribution: she reminded me of Gwyneth Paltrow’s role in the fake Austin Powers movie (as “Dixie Normous”) in Goldmember.
  • The site redesign proceeds apace. We’re getting closer to the big relaunch, but we’re not quite there yet. It’s looking good, though.

Toy Aisle Trolls > Stealjacked

June 17, 2011 | Poe

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.

Submitted by: CB

The Problem: It contains a Sideswipe Red Alert painted to look like Wheeljack.

What It’s Supposed to Look Like: This

CB writes:

Here’s one that really goes above and beyond.  I didn’t take this photo, but it was posted on the Illinois Sightings board on tfw2005.com by user TheGame2K5 earlier this week.  Apparently he found a Transformers Generations Wheeljack (an extremely hard to find Transformer that seems to have been skipped over by the stores) at a Chicago store, but it had a Sideswipe [Red Alert – ed.] figure instead, THAT HAD BEEN PAINTED TO LOOK LIKE WHEELJACK.  Talk about going the extra effort to get away with this kind of crap.

Karmic Payback: The perp’s car gets stolen and the insurance company refuses to pay for it because they don’t like his ugly face.