Today I witnessed first hand the most insidious example of Transformers toy swapping I’ve ever seen. I collect 2 toylines, Marvel Legends and Transformers. Toy swapping is such a huge problem with ML everywhere, I see this so regularly that I stopped buying retail and order cases instead. The problem is nowhere near as bad for Transformers in my experience but I’ve come across a few examples over the years, but nothing to piss me off enough to compel me to write about it until today.
Today I found a Titans Return Galvatron with a swapped Mindwipe Titan Master instead of Megatron. I had to do a double take just to make sure I wasn’t wrong. The asswipe expertly double taped the box with matching tape and even put the clear rubber band around the Titan Master head. Perfect in every way, even the factory couldn’t do a better job. Normally I’d just shrug and forget about it, as I and others who have brought examples of this to the attention of the store often meet with staff who could give a shit, it was purely chance that this caught my eye and also that a manager was in the same aisle directing people to setup the nearby holiday display.
I mentioned this to him not expecting anything of it, but to my surprise he seemed genuinely shocked and even angry about it. I showed him the swapped box against 3 other misb Galvatron boxes to prove the point. I also noted the double tape on the swap whereas the other 3 were not. He called over another employee, who confirmed she restocked this item from returns earlier today which meant the item was probably returned in the past 2 days. I asked the manager what could be done about this and he said they could easily scan the barcode to see the date and time this UPC was last returned and call up surveillance.
I also mentioned this location was notorious for ML toy swapping too, and probably others as well (Star Wars, WWE etc.) so he asked me how to tell and what tips to lookout for. I said first identify products with highest likelihood of theft/swap (adult collectables eg. Marvel Legends) and to educate store employees (without knowledge of the product) what they should look out for when these items are returned:
#1 double tape (meaning item was opened)
#2 swapped/missing parts
#3 just look at the back of the box and compare
I said an honest customer wouldn’t mind the extra scrutiny if making returns, in fact I’d love to see it more often. A scammer would pick another store. I spent maybe 10 min talking to the manager, so at least someone at this Walmart cares. Wanted to snap a picure, but didn’t want to in front of the manager. The location was at the Gerrard Square Walmart in Toronto.
So to all my fellow Cybertronians, whom I’m sure have all seen this type of douchebaggery before, if you see something wrong let the store know, you just might speak with someone who can do something about it.
To the asshat who went to all the trouble to steal a tiny Megatron Titan Master and thought he got away with it unnoticed, congratulations. But remember, karma’s a bitch. Hope you didn’t use a credit card.
