I've got you beat. Here is a RAM/TroubleBubble pack I found. Notice the "issues":

- Joe is missing gear (he is laying in the back of the package)
- side gun on RAM is gone
- Televipers is replaced with a red Night Creeper
- I believe that's an original TroubleBubble

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This should totally be the new Group Project:

"Create-Your-Own-Returnable-Merchandise"

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Would the goal be to make it as convincing as possible or as crappy as possible?

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as crappy as possible. bonus points for getting away w/ the return and having proof with receipt

jk, swapping is bad, mmkay.

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I used to work with a guy who collected Hot Wheels and we'd often compare hobbies since non-toy collectors just can't seem to understand the hobby.

Yea the Hot Wheels guys are insane.

He'd tell me about how you had to bribe the peole who worked at the store to let you into the box before it could get on the shelves, about the weekly plan you needed to hit all the different places and the insane amount of money these cars resold for.

Thanks to supply still having a hard time keeping up with demand the GI Joe hobby can still be a pain in the rear, but it's not even a 10th of the insanity you'd need to make in the Hot Wheels world.

Plus if Hasbro can ever balance out the suppy demand problem like they have with other toy lines our hobby can get back to normal when the scalpers move on to the next hot thing to sell on e-Bay while Hot Wheels just stays crazy forever with chase cars and other rare things to make grown men insane.

I guess it's true that sarcasm doesn't read well on the net.

If considered for a real GP, I wouldn't expect anyone to actually attempt to return soemthing to a store for a refund (because that is just wrong).

It would be more of along the lines of just creating something really wacky-like picking up some obscure generic figure or vehicle at a garage sale and then sealing inside packaging. Something like those knock-offs of knock-offs you see in Dollar stores that use the Luke X-WIng head.

...not meant to be a serious GP...

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I definitely agree with this statement. A few months ago, I happened to be in my local WM. There was a father there with his two sons. The kids were clamoring for different Hot Wheels cars. The father asks a Sales Associate if there are any other boxes in the back so the kids could see if their cars are there.

The SA replies back - "I am sorry but we don't allow for customers to check the boxes anymore. We had too many people come in and buy cases of them, then they return the majority of the box case and keep only one or two of the collector cars."

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Heck I would have bought it anyway. Red NIght Creepers are neat! Then an original Trouble Bubble - hell yaz!

Oh and GREED is what Walmart, Target, and other Super Chain stores are doing to small buisness. Where once we lived in a land that was ripe with small buisness's (mom and pop stores etc) that made our economy strong now we have a nation of one entity global buisness where they make there workers perform chants before coming to work.

You speak of evil...I don't think you really know what that is.

on the way back from the con we found these at a small, out of the way wal-mart in Alabama, I think. I thought it was pretty blatant....

Don't get me wrong though. I don't condone theft in any form. I just couldn't care less we people do it to big companys.

The classic arguement here is that it just raises the prices anyway.

However, those big companies have surveillance and security officers, not to mention the person accepting the return. They also budget in a certain amount of loss/shirnkage that is acceptable.

Trust me here, ten years now in the security feild.

Just not for big companies as they tend to make there employees feel that the company doesn't care about them. Which they typically don't IMO, but then they could also just be crappy employees too.

PM me if you want to know how I really feel.

No way! Vipers replaced by Creepers?
The ninja invasion has started people!





What's a Red Thunder Roar Vehicle?

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Seeing the BanDai logo on it, and with the name, I'm guessing it's a Power Rangers vehicle.

Yep, a quick search turned up this:

http://www.toywiz.com/redthundervehicle.html

And according to Toy Wiz, it's a "hot" item...

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Ohhhh that's some hot stuff indeed

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Are people that cheap? Are they really saving money?

I assume that they spent money to drive to the store to buy it the first time. They bought the Replacement figure, glue/tape to reseal the packaging and more money on gas for the ride to return it.

How much do they actually save? Even at $7.99 at Target Joes are still a low cost item.

I don't think they actually save.
With the gas prices these days.

I think that in their mind, they're trading figures with the store, but the store just doesn't know it...

Its pretty bad and I'm glad that I haven't seen it around here (ok we don't get much Joes to begin with)...

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