By Julian H. Betancourt
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SLICES:
AN IN DEPTH LOOK AT PLASTIC CRIME

It's happened to all of us; even if it hasn't directly touched us, we at least know about someone, either a relative or a friend, that has gone through the forever agonizing experience of this horrendous crime. A crime commonly committed in practically every city and town of our Nation; a crime where its perpetrators, hide and slice without any compassion, brand new packages and blisters, making an effusive show of pleasure and drooling away with their desirable plastic prey.

They've never gotten caught. They've never received serious punishment for the injustice they so hellishly have unleashed...

FACE TO FACE WITH A SLICE ATTACK

How many of you have walked into a store, whether it is Wal-Mart, Target, that Geoffrey the giraffe place or any other retailer having your heart in your throat? You feel it pounding faster than Tommy Lee's drums, pounding in an uncontrollable way, motivated by those, oh so realistic thoughts of brand new toys waiting for you ahead. The adrenaline rush is so strong, you're moving faster than a bullet train. You are ready to crash and burn. People watch you zoom by in awe, but you don't care. Why would you? Every single one of your body cells is bursting with hope while a wishful little voice caressing your brains, tells you: "We will find new figures today!"

You have traveled so far for what you need; you have wondered around unexplored towns with your Mapquest.com store locator print out in hand, trying to find that toy store address for so long. You've gotten lost, oh, so many times seeking the action figure isle in these now expanding stores that seem to carry from a nail to a jet plane. You have finally made it to that special area where little plastic aliens and men hang from peg hooks, enclosed, jailed in, prisoners in their own blistered cells.

Your mind, in an almost robotic fashion, has been carrying a completely detailed database on what you are after. From the strangest names to the longest production numbers, all stored within your gray matter as a new book of revelations, as if this information was vital to stay alive. Your eyelids have opened up so much to the presence of your "God blessed" merchandise once it's been found. Your eye balls ready to pop out and become mere ping pong balls on the store's floor.

They are here! The toy line you want, the cards you seek, the names you are after! It is all here right in front of you YET... some strange feeling starts to invade your body as if you'd started getting ready to burst, like the finest glass would, into a million pieces!

You feel your blood boiling like lava from Mount St. Helen. You sense your temperature rise, out of control. You touch your ears and quickly pull away your hands as if the heat emitting from your biological listening pieces was ready to turn your fingers into a blob of melted butter... What has caused this sudden atmospheric change within your cranial world?

The anger takes over. The frustrating anger of noticing a crime has been committed and nothing was done about it. You feel completely powerless as you pick up the cards, those little cardboard colored pieces that once held within their blistered fronts the figures you wasted so much gas on trying to get. You can almost cry, yell and even punch anyone that comes around us. You are overcome by a mixture of feelings and emotions, more complicated than the hardest drink to prepare. It is advisable at this point for any store employee to try not to approach you, to give you a couple of minutes to settle down and come to your senses. You are almost at the verge of a nervous breakdown, and you could become a dangerous animal as you've just come face to face with the unacceptable truth of a switcheroo attack on figures.

There, within your shaky, trembling hands turned into vices, you hold up an OTC Gamorrean Guard card perfectly sliced on its side and re-taped; all done with almost surgical precision. As you look inside the blister, you notice the offender has gotten away with the precious Green Pig and has replaced him with none other than the bearded Hagrid from Harry Potter. Even the Pig's ax was stolen away and in its place you find what appears to be a butterfly catcher. "What the ....?"- it's all that comes to mind, followed by an almost animalistic, growling sound -"Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrargh!!!!" The pain, the pain!

GETTING SERIOUS ON THIS ISSUE

Of course folks, the preceding was just an exaggerated look at a common problem nowadays found in our hobby, action figure theft. But the idea was to point out, to further accent the actions taking place. This issue certainly is one we feel store managers and department heads should give more attention to. More important, proper education on this issue should be taught to those employees at a service desk accepting returns on product which does not coincide with its packaging.

It is understood that a customer service associate has a lot to deal with throughout the day. Among other duties, he or she has to separate and tag huge amounts of returned merchandise, count money, and deal with customers which in many instances could be categorized as less than desirable. After a few hours of work, such pressuring job could become tiring and even frustrating, leading an employee to overlook a vast amount of these returns, limiting himself to search only for bar codes (proof of purchase) without further inspection of the product, just to get things over with.

But sometimes the employee has not received the proper training and therefore he or she isn't knowledgeable enough to notice when a "switch" has taken place. This issue should be of more concern to managers/employers. Proper training of an individual will help identify when an item has been altered as well as give the employee the adequate mental capability to deal with work pressure while still performing his duties by company standards. After all false returns are a loss not only for the consumer but for the store as well. People seeking for a certain item know the difference between "reality and fiction" and will not buy an altered product, thus the store won't profit and the product will sit on the shelf or peg, taking space, cluttering and preventing new merchandise from surfacing.

I have traveled through the state of Florida numerous times, and I've always made sure to bring my camera along, hoping to catch a glimpse of something worth pointing the lens at. The amount of stores I have visited as well as the huge amount of switched product I have found, not only for toys but for clothing as well, leads me to believe this is an issue that requires more looking into. I have personally brought up to managers attention the condition of certain packages and have explained what has been done to them. Sometimes their reaction has been positive and they have taken away the product almost immediately but in most cases I have received an over the shoulder look and an almost inaudible "Thanks." In many instances the figures have been taken to the back only to mysteriously reappear the next day hanging from the pegs.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

There is actually very little that can be done on our part to stop this. These items get usually switched at someone's home and get brought back to the store for a refund so as mentioned, it is more of a deal on what the store can do than what we can do as concerned citizens. Nevertheless, if you witness someone at the store messing around with the figures, talk to the manager or Loss Prevention and tell them you are willing to make a citizens arrest. The store should make the individual(s) purchase the items they've messed up and should write on their receipt DO NOT RETURN so they can't just take them back to another store for a refund.

Retail Loss Prevention Detectives can and do charge people all the time with criminal damage to property, which is what this type of criminal act is considered. The fines range anywhere from $50.00 and higher plus the cost of the item.

SLICE ATTACKS: A CLOSE UP VIEW

Slices is the name I decided to give to this section, because to me, it feels as we were actually being attacked by some sort of slashers, blades in hand, opening harmless packages left and right and getting away with what we should all have a chance to get our hands on, new product!

The sliced blisters and packages are a true representation of what a few unscrupulous individuals are willing to do in order to obtain a $5.00 or $10.00 figure. This sense of entitlement or perhaps lack of pride they bring to the hobby is honestly, sickening.

Do they realize that although they might be benefiting from their crime, they are actually contributing to withdraw interest on a hobby?

So these individuals understand the consequences of doing this?

Namely, some kid will get stuck with a mis-packaged figure because his parents bought it not knowing the item was defective or switched. Collectors will feel even more frustrated after having to deal with poor distribution issues, by finding only the tampered packaging to those items they so passionately look for. Simply their actions aren't fair for the rest of the community.

The sliced blisters are either cut in a symmetrical U shape and left hanging from their top portion or cut right under the blister, somehow pulling the figure and tray out, replacing the actual item with the most noticeable, most outrageous things one can imagine and then Scotch taping the blister to disguise the slice. For instance, stands are taking out and replaced by damaged freeze frames; a Star Wars character gets replaced by a McDonald's happy meal toy, Unleashed figures get swapped around by infamous McFarlane monsters, new characters are created using parts from several figures, even a box for a Republic Gunship was recently found filled with rocks and pieces of wood, no ship inside and ... the list goes on.

A loyal Sandtrooper and good friend, Matt Vance from Jacksonville, Florida had this experience he willingly wanted to share with us all concerning a recent slice attack:

"At the local K-Mart, I found VOTC Han and Vader with the figures removed and replaced with older figures. The Han one had a POTF2 Bespin Han, and the Vader looked to have a POTF Vader sans cape. They were actually pretty well done, as the knife marks were very well concealed. Bastards!"

Matt adds:

"My finding of the 'repackaged' figures was kind of sad, in a way; a preteen boy actually pointed them out to me. I was checking out the Star Wars section (or lack thereof) when he came up to me and said, "Excuse me, sir, do you collect Star Wars toys?" I told him I did, and then he very politely asked me if I thought the two figures were right or if they had been tampered with. Upon my quick inspection, I confirmed to him that they were in fact switched, and the look on his face was almost one of if I had just shot his dog! I really felt bad for the little guy. I was impressed, however, at his savvy eye for catching the tampering."

Bastard, as Matt called them, is in fact the perfect noun to describe the scum stealing the merchandise and leaving all of us empty handed.

What follows is a series of pictures I have taken on my trips to some of south and Central Florida stores. They reflect what these individuals are doing here in the Sunshine State, as well as what others are doing throughout the country as reports have stated. Feel free to send in your own pictures of any "slices" you might find in your area and they will gladly be added to the article.

For what its worth, enjoy the pictures and reflect on them. Keep your eyes peeled for these "attacks" and as mentioned contact someone in charge immediately if you witness it.

PHOTO GALLERY