The Action Figure and Toy Collecting and Discussion Thread!

[cooleddie74]

My local Toys "R" Us has resorted to putting staples in some of its 3.75" Black Series packaging to keep the bubbles and figures from falling off. And they're not tiny, subtle staples either.

Hasbro, correct this factory packaging problem before the entire line winds up as the retail action figure equivalent of a sugar sculpture in a rainstorm.

 

[Saga]

picked up several things the past couple weeks. SH Figuarts Kamen Rider V3 and Kamen Rider W.

Soul of Chogokin Battle Fever Robo. this is the first one of these i've bought. its pretty amazing. though, there are so many accessories it's almost overwhelming.

 

[cooleddie74]

Some of the new Amazon-exclusive TIE Interceptors (retro Vintage Collection packaging) are arriving with damage issues, including crushed boxes and knife gashes and cuts in the sides of the packaging from where they were hastily prepared for shipping to customers. It doesn't seem to be as widespread nor as bad as what's been happening to many of the Vintage Collection Slave I's (also an Amazon exclusive), but it's generated some annoyance and eyerolls nonetheless.

Keep an eye open for yours if you ordered it.

 

[Shazam!]

knife gashes and cuts in the sides of the packaging

All the TIEs in my local Toysrus have this problem. Not that I was ever going to buy it considering it's £50 here...

 

[cooleddie74]

Some of the knife damage is unavoidable given how the vehicles and ships are packaged inside the shipping containers and the tools some employees are given to do their jobs, but sometimes it gets obnoxious and it's clear that somebody somewhere just doesn't give a crap about the condition of the item or how the buyer will feel if the box is mashed and/or sliced.

 

[C.E. Evans]

^^^
When I was working in retail, there would be case boxes labeled "Fragile," "Treat Like Glass," "Do Not Use Hooks," or "Do Not Cut." But I would periodically see cases come in that were damaged upon arrival by being crushed in the pallet they were shipped in or by someone who used hooks before they were shipped out. The majority of cases were fine, in pristine condition, but occasionally there'd be one that looked like it'd been through the wringer.

Part of it may indeed be negligence on the part of employees, but more often than not it's driven by the shipping company having a strict quota of how many cases they're supposed to ship out per minute (somewhere around 100 or more in some cases), so damaged product does indeed happen on a fairly regular basis. Where I worked, we sent damaged product back or marked them down (but markdowns were definitely on a first come, first served basis and could be gone within minutes of hitting the clearance shelves).

Other stores may not have that policy (you want it, come and get it as-is).

 

[cooleddie74]

To be frank I'm more concerned about the damage that occurs well after the shipping cases arrive in the stores themselves and then the product inside is stocked on the shelves and pegs. One all-too-common instance of deliberate employee damage seen in recent years is the "fold-and-crease," where it's all too apparent that store employees who realize many buyers purchase the item and keep it inside the package for display bend and crease the upper corner of the cardback before or as they're sliding the action figure onto the wall peg, with the damage happening in pretty much the same general area of the packaging on each figure.

That's been proven more than once to be a clear case of employee tampering with packaging as some mean-spirited joke to pull on carded collectors (while scalpers are widely known and disliked by many toy department employees in a variety of retail chains, it's a lesser-known fact that some of the same employees have a skeptical and dismissive if not outright scoffing and hostile attitude towards normal collectors, and some have deliberately damaged packaging to poke a stick in their eyes and be unpleasant). Damage in-transit and during the opening process happens and can't always be avoided, but the shenanigans that sometimes happen after the product arrives in the stores can.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think willful damaging of product is something that's done by a very small percentage of employees. But I've also heard that "fold-and-crease" damage can sometimes happen during shipment and/or in a store's receiving room/warehouse, especially if space is at a premium back there (too much of it taken up by stuff that isn't selling).

I'm not discounting that deliberate sabotage doesn't happen at some stores by a few mean-spirited employees, but I believe the vast majority of retail employees don't.

 

[cooleddie74]

Oh, I didn't want it to sound like most toy department employees do this or even remotely close to it. No, it's not anything like a majority and never has been. But a small number do, it's been happening for years now and the word and photos get around. There've been collectors who've posted reports of catching a few employees here and there in the act of bending the packaging and then putting it on the pegs and a couple who even confronted them in the aisles about damaging their own store's merchandise.

Natural wear-and-tear damage happens over time and when you have to cram a lot of figures onto one peg or peg wall and that's something I believe most modern collectors realize, recognize and take into account - it's also the kind of damage that's easy to spot. Dented and dinged bubbles....small scratches....frayed edges on cardbacks, those sorts of things that naturally occur when you shove figures onto pegs and then collectors and kids leaf through and pick them up over the course of days, weeks and even months. But yeah, deliberate damage is done by some jerks in retail but it's always been a small minority. Just enough to get noticed, though.

Most employees are more likely to not even care in the first place and be oblivious than they are to be deliberately provocative and even malicious, but it's a recurring problem over the course of recent years and it's something that comes up from time to time in the community and on collecting sites.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Saw the 3.75 Black series I'm guessing the first wave at the comic shop...nearly bought the Anakin Skywalker one. They looked fully stocked as well from what I could tell...and very close now to finally getting the Diamond Select Enterprise-E. I decided to wait for the First Contact version. I will most likely be getting it next week...I was ten bucks short, or else i would have gotten it today.

 

[cooleddie74]

There's a running change in the new 3.75" Black Series Anakin. The first version was released with hair and eyebrows that are darker than Hayden Christensen's in the second prequel and are thus kinda inaccurate. The revised one hitting in the most recent case assortments has a sandier, lighter paint job on the hair and brows that more closely matches Christensen's appearance in the film.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I think the revised one is the one I saw then.

 

[cooleddie74]

Just curious: did you happen to notice the condition of the packaging? Did the blister bubble appear to be in a state of separating from the cardback? There actually are some out there with competent heat seals holding the bubble in place, but they're nowhere near a majority of the Anakins (or any of the other figures in Wave 1, really) that have shipped to stores.

I've read and heard stories from collectors who actually find cardbacks and bubbles in great shape with a complete seal all the way around, but they're not that common. It'd be nice to hear a few more.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Well, I'm in that stage that every collector reaches as some point: the purge.

I'm looking at what I really like, and what I just wonder what I was thinking, and unloading a lot of stuff. I'm thinking most of my Marvel Legends collection is going to go, along with a few of the older Sideshow items I have. Some of it I'm sad to let go of, but it's oddly freeing in a way. It helps me declutter a lot.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I only really glanced at them...but what I did pay attention to, the packaging seemed pretty good to me. I'm the type of person where if I see any kind of blemishes or problems with the packaging I will pass on something...but all of these looked pretty good when I glanced them.

 

[cooleddie74]

Just in case some here haven't seen the carded images of upcoming characters or had forgotten them, here are two very quick video previews from online collector and friend of the community Fuzzball about Waves 2 and 3 of the brand new 3.75" figures.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSLn2zPjzXI[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_3382158931&feature=iv&src_vid=nSLn2zPjzXI&v=PbDMY68Tl7I[/yt]

 

[AstroSmurf]

Well, I'm in that stage that every collector reaches as some point: the purge.

Funny you should mention this. I received the first wave of the Star Wars six inch Black Series last week and spent an hour finding a home for them on the shelves. Something had to go so I could display them. But unlike you I prefer to keep everything and put things into storage. I can't sell anything, especially collections I worked hard putting together. If I run out of display space I simply pick the one I am least interested in at the moment and pack it away. The only thing I refuse to pack up is my ship collection. I may have to amend that soon. I have ships running out my ears. Thank the maker I have a lot of storage space in my current apartment!

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

^That's how I've been. But now I'm out of storage space, too!

 

[doubleohfive]

I saw this on Facebook tonight and figured some of you would be interested. (lookin' at you, cooleddie.)

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0TfqW5jd58A#t=322[/yt]

 

[cooleddie74]

You know me so well, my good man. Thanks for that vid.