Thieves in my area are taking things to the next level.

[Tigermegatron]

Thieves in my area are taking things to the next level in various local stores ( Walmart,Target,Kmart) by opening up Transformers toys & stealing/destroying stuff inside the package. I noticed this a few weeks ago when I visted several local chain stores. Last night,I also saw some transformers blister cared toys opened up on the store shelves.

Last year when the TFP deluxe Vehicons were hard to find & the most popular item,Some tool/Fan ran went to several of my local stores (Target/walmart/kmart) & ripped open,heavily bent/damaged all the cardboard blister cards.

SADLY IT DOESN'T EVEN LOOK LIKE THE THIEVES MAIN GOAL IS TO STEAL STUFF INSIDE THE PACKAGE HE OPENS UP INSIDE THE STORE. It looks like the Thieves main goal is to destroy the package & to break the toy inside. I saw several opened up TF toy with broken/damaged ripped off parts.

CLEARLY this is all the handy work of a bunch/group of angry/spiteful/trollish TF fans who are adult men. I realize the Economy is bad & these guys might not have jobs,been fired or have no money,BUT TO REACT LIKE THIS & DESTROY STUFF TO PREVENT OTHERS FROM BUYING MINT UN-OPENED PRODUCT IS JUST AS MALICIOUS AS ANYONE CAN GET.

Getting all revengeful because your jealous of other who can afford to buy TF toys makes ZERO sense. Nobody needs toys to survive,they are not necessity items like food,water,clothing & housing.

I realize Some TF fans have extreme OCD but their is more important things in life than buying TF toys. like having sex with women,spending time with friends & family. getting a job & working a 40+ hours week. saving up for your retirement. taking a vacaction with your family/friends. making sure your kids do good in school so they can get decent jobs when they grow up.

These guys are clear embarassements to any fandom their in. they clearly are what is known as men-childs. they clearly have mental dis-orders,extreme OCD,Don't get much sex,are hermits/shut in,loners,social outcast,trolls.

I refuse to believe/speculate that kids are doing this at stores. because kids just don't have all this spare time on their hands,nor do they have any evil hate agendas to act like this. most of the time kids who go to stores are closely monitored & surronded by their parents. their a clear pattern here,it's being done in the same format in all the stores i visit.

I'm convinced this thief or group of thives must live close to the stores & walks to the stores. Because I find it hard to believe any angry fans who runs to stores stealing/breaking stuff DRIVES AROUND WITH A CAR & WASTES ALL THAT GASOLINE THAT'S AROUND $3.40 PER GALLON.

Why the rant?? Because last night I saw a Beast Hunters voyager shockwave toy at my local Walmart. I decided to buy it & took it to the register to pay for it. as I was handing the toy to the woman to get it scanned,I noticed the tape on the box was missing & replaced by a sloppy small piece of tape. Since it was the only shockwave,I decided to buy it & take a chance. When I took the toy home & removed it from it's package,I noticed one of the plastic spike parts that go up/down on the huge arm canon was ripped right off & missing. the guy ripped the part off so badly he broke it in a way it couldn't get fixed.

So not only am I dealing with thieves in my area,we've got a extreme case of Vandalism going on here.

Sadly this report is coming from a TF fan (me) who can only afford (due to high gasoline prices) to visit the stores doing toy hunts once a month. I clearly only see a tiny portion of the Vandalism/stolen stuff that happens in my local area chain stores.

I had speculated last year & during DOTM that stores employees & management were damaging toys to upset the scalpers & OCD fans that visit/buy from their stores. Since this vandalism & stolen items thing is going on for 3+ years now,I SERIOUSLY DOUBT STORE EMPLOYEES/MANMAGEMENT IS DOING THE VANDALISM here. Because stores employees/management might do this once or twice,mBut they are not willing to do this for extended time periods due to it ruining their sales from the non-scalpers non-ocd buyers.

[Gomess]

Are you sure the damage couldn't have been caused externally during shipping?

Seems like a bit of a gamble- and a highly specific one, at that- to immediately jump to "adult male virgin hermit with vengeance agenda".

You could, of course, report these incidents to the stores in question...

Oh, and this is kind of pedantic, but if the whole point is that they're not stealing anything then they're not really *thieves*, right..?

[Shockwave]

I've occasionally run into weird shit like this in my area except that the ones here are idiots. If this happened here they would have replaced BH Shockwave with a G1 Shockwave. I once when into Toys R Us looking for Universe Cyclonus and Hound when they first came out and found Starscream and Cyclonus. But Starscream had G2 Starscream in the package, Hound had RID X-Brawn with G1 Ravage and Cyclonus had BM Deluxe Jetstorm. I mean how dumb do you have to be to replace retail toys with older toys that are worth more than the ones on retail? Idiots.

Also, why would store employees and/or management willingly and knowingly damage packaging? Seriously, what would be the gain there? In fact, it would just make them less money as most stores will give a discount for damaged packaging (I once got Armada Tidal Wave cheaper because the packaging was damaged and this was at Toys R Us).

[Gomess]

G2 Starscream

RID X-Brawn with G1 Ravage

*eyetwitch*

Way to go, IRL trolls. You sure showed... whoever

The only explanation I can think of for that is that they were positive pranking.

[Shockwave]

I just wished I'd had enough money at the time to actually buy them. Cause I would have. Silly me for saving that for the toys I was actually looking for.

[Tigermegatron]

Oh, and this is kind of pedantic, but if the whole point is that they're not stealing anything then they're not really *thieves*, right..?

Last night at my local walmart the guys who did the Vandalism on BH Voyager Shockwave did manage to break off a part & steal it.

During DOTM & 2012 TFP,probably the same group of thieves stole all the mech tech activated weapons & regular weapons.

[Tigermegatron]

Also, why would store employees and/or management willingly and knowingly damage packaging? Seriously, what would be the gain there? In fact, it would just make them less money as most stores will give a discount for damaged packaging

Because most local stores in my area are sick & tired of Scalpers. Most store employees/managers will bend/damage blister cards/boxes in minor ways to defeat the Scalpers. These Employees/managers are not ripping the blister cards in half nor are they stepping on/throwing the boxes against the wall. They are putting enough minimal damage to the blister cards/boxes to prevent the scalpers from buying these toys. Because they know scalpers need to buy perfect condition/mint toys in order to get the most profit from buyers.

Most USA stores hate Scalpers because they scare away customers due to their obnoxious/rude behavior & sloppy appearance.

[Dominic]

I have seen and heard of this sort of thing before.

Putting aside odd acts of vandalism by children throwing tantrums or accidental damage in shipping, the most likely culprit would be collectors/speculators. The idea is that they are applying pro-active "supply and demand". By damaging packages (or even figures) in a store, they are limiting the available supply, thus increasing the value of their own inventory. They cannot afford to wipe out a retailer's supply the honest way, so they simply destroy what they cannot take for themselves.

Destroying the toy creates scarcity among collectors and kids. Eventually, somebody is going to hit eBay. Granted, there is likely to be more than one copy on eBay. But, the scalper knows that the local supply is down. And, by decreasing the supply, the have proportionally increasd demand and their own odds of making a sale.

I've occasionally run into weird shit like this in my area except that the ones here are idiots. If this happened here they would have replaced BH Shockwave with a G1 Shockwave. I once when into Toys R Us looking for Universe Cyclonus and Hound when they first came out and found Starscream and Cyclonus. But Starscream had G2 Starscream in the package, Hound had RID X-Brawn with G1 Ravage and Cyclonus had BM Deluxe Jetstorm. I mean how dumb do you have to be to replace retail toys with older toys that are worth more than the ones on retail? Idiots.

This is wacky.

It might be a positive pranking (similar to the rash of custom painted Megatrons that were showing up on store shelves during early waves of "Transformers: Prime").

Or, it could also be a question of somebody doing the hedonist's equation. I recall all the TFU figures that Shockwave mentions here being rare-ish despite being "current" at the time. There are some toy collectors who are in the hobby for the scam as much as the toys. They want the toys, but they want to get them as cheaply as possible. So, they swap in old figures that they do not want any more for new figures that they do want, saving out of pocket money (even if they could have made more by selling the toys they "swapped").


Dom
-knew somebody who spent $40 on a "buy one get one" pack to get one of the toys, returned the other at another store, and went on to buy and split more buy one get one packs until he ended up with over $200 in new toys that night.

[Almighty Unicron]

I don't get the logic to sticking toys into the packaging. It's not like Indiana jones with weight sensors or something, isn't it?

[Shockwave]

I don't get the logic to sticking toys into the packaging. It's not like Indiana jones with weight sensors or something, isn't it?

The idea is that you're essentially trading toys with the store. You want a toy that's currently out. But you either don't have the money or just don't feel like paying for it. So you buy it, take it home, and swap crap you want for crap you don't want and then take it back. Then the store has your toy you don't want any more and you've got that shiny new thing you were after.

Except that in my area the toys they swap out for could have been sold for enough money to buy the ones they wanted like three times over.