Yes and no, that bit about the guy using a rewards card was pretty dumb. Then again, grifting off of toy stores is pretty messed up. It does explain what those stupid cards are actually for - tracking and theft prevention, not useless coupons.

I use mine every time I go, but never get any benefit from it. I guess if I stopped using it, I could go steal from TRU and get away with it maybe.

Yeah me neither. What are those cards even for besides tracking your purchases?

The Rewards card will occasionally give you "percentage off" or "X number of dollars off an X dollar purchase" coupons (like "10% off a $50 purchase" or "$5 off any purchase of $25 or more"). Worth it if you shop there a lot and rarely return anything, but not so much if you only buy stuff there a couple times a year or if you might return anything bought using the coupon.

It can also be used to tailor advertising and dictate the eligible and ineligible items listed in the coupons' fine print.

HA. Always the Drone...

SO weird too! That's the pain in the ass Drone to get because it's only with the three pack! Why swap something rare?

That's what I keep wondering. Also, I'm not sure what the figure on the far left is but I think it's a Power Ranger.

What in the hell is the figure on the left??????

I think it's a Power Ranger or swap meet figure of some kind.

always love seeing swapped figures. shit is absolutely hilarious. sometimes it works in your favor as it's a figure you might need. i remember for the life of me coulnd't find a ML human torch from series 2 with the 4 on his chest. found a house of M set (on clearance none the less!) with him in it swapped for the inhuman torch. already had the set so i snagged it up real quick

Yeah, it's some kind of dollar store figure. I've seen it around randomly.

Were these swaps found in the store like that or are you guys swapping them yourself?

They are swaps we've seen on shelves.

There is this toy site I really enjoy called poeghostal.com. One of their features is called "toy aisle trolls" and it's a lot of pics of swapped toys.

Toy Aisle Trolls : Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation

Enjoy!

So people actually do that, take the good figures and leave garbage? How do they do that without getting caught by employees?
And why use the Navy drone, its rare.

It looks like Battle Star Galactica meets WWE.

It's pretty common, trekking. I've seen it a few times but it's not as entertaining in person.

And how do they do it? C'mon man, we all know that TRU has a few "wtf, no one visits this aisle" parts of the store. Plus, at my TRU anyways, there aren't really a lot of employees around.

I always assumed the bought them swapped and returned them post swap.

what I don't get is, why not take Thor & the pyms as well? In for a penny in for a pound you know

Most repackers buy an item, take it home, swap the figure(s) with "crap" then return it to the store for a refund. Most employees at the returns desk are clueless when it comes to toys, so they don't even notice.

We're toy collectors and geeks, so we can instantly see what's wrong. A clerk at Target probably won't know that Navy Drone and Power Ranger KO aren't part of the Classics Avengers (unless it's in the home of a five-year-old).

And it's rare to hear about someone doing what that mother and son did, especially with closed-circuit cameras and employee patrolling the aisles. Of course, that could be simply because other scam artists knew better than to use their bloody rewards card while pulling the con.

I think we're all still trying to figure that one out.

My store's more like Optimus Vader's. I usually get 2-3 staff asking me how I'm doing and if I need any help finding anything. Part of me believes they're trying to be helpful and it's their job. But a part of me knows that my presence in the aisle raises some eyebrows (a adult male alone in the boys' toys section who looks like he knows exactly what he's looking for).

Maybe the repacker didn't have anything small enough to stand in for the Pyms and he already had enough Thors?

The one I took the picture of was at a Walmart and it seems a lot swappers pick on Walmart because the employees have no clue. I mean, even as a figure collector I probably wouldn't even notice if swaps were done a lot of kids toy lines. I know the Marvel/Star Wars/G.I. Joe stuff but most things in the toy aisles are pretty foreign to me as I'm not a kid watching the shows they are based on.