This Week In Your Plastic Crack, Action Figures and Toy Collection 26 26

[F For Fake]

My Gold Label 89 Batmobile w/ Bats arrived from Amazon yesterday. In the last few weeks I'd read many reports about people had received their Batmobiles double-boxed, and in great shape. Mine arrived with the shipping labels stuck right on the toy box, no outer box whatsoever. More than a little peeved, will be contacting them, for all the good it does.

[fantastic_four]

On 10/25/2023 at 9:43 AM, F For Fake said:

My Gold Label 89 Batmobile w/ Bats arrived from Amazon yesterday. In the last few weeks I'd read many reports about people had received their Batmobiles double-boxed, and in great shape. Mine arrived with the shipping labels stuck right on the toy box, no outer box whatsoever. More than a little peeved, will be contacting them, for all the good it does.

There's a checkbox on the Amazon checkout screen that shows up for some items indicating that if you don't specify otherwise Amazon might ship it directly in the manufacturer's packaging.  I see that checkbox showing up for that batmobile when I add it to my cart and go to checkout.

So if you don't notice it's there you may or may not have it shipped like yours was. If you click the "Ship in Amazon Packaging" button beneath the warning then they ship it inside of one of their boxes.  Most of the time I don't care because I'm going to toss the packaging anyway, but sometimes I do because I'm buying something that I may try to re-sell later in which case I ship it in Amazon's packaging.

Usually they ship it in their own packaging anyway even if you don't specify.  I've forgotten to specify it many times--or not forgotten and left it alone because I didn't care--and I've still never had something shipped directly in the manufacturer's packaging.

I have no idea which items they do this for.  I think in general it's larger items, but I could easily be wrong.

Edited October 25, 2023 by fantastic_four

[F For Fake]

On 10/25/2023 at 9:53 AM, fantastic_four said:

There's a checkbox on the Amazon checkout screen that shows up for some items indicating that if you don't specify otherwise Amazon might ship it directly in the manufacturer's packaging.  I see that checkbox showing up for that batmobile when I add it to my cart and go to checkout.

So if you don't notice it's there you may or may not have it shipped like yours was. If you click the "Ship in Amazon Packaging" button beneath the warning then they ship it inside of one of their boxes.  Most of the time I don't care because I'm going to toss the packaging anyway, but sometimes I do because I'm buying something that I may try to re-sell later in which case I ship it in Amazon's packaging.

Usually they ship it in their own packaging anyway even if you don't specify.  I've forgotten to specify it many times--or not forgotten and left it alone because I didn't care--and I've still never had something shipped directly in the manufacturer's packaging.

Yeah, in this instance I would have expected the manufacturers packaging to be the brown shipper, which would have been fine, but in this case they would have had to have removed it from the carton, then the shipper, and then slap the labels on and sent it out. Baffling. They've already approved the return, so no big deal, hopefully the next one fares better!

[Cat]

On 10/25/2023 at 11:43 PM, F For Fake said:

My Gold Label 89 Batmobile w/ Bats arrived from Amazon yesterday. In the last few weeks I'd read many reports about people had received their Batmobiles double-boxed, and in great shape. Mine arrived with the shipping labels stuck right on the toy box, no outer box whatsoever. More than a little peeved, will be contacting them, for all the good it does.

I had this happen to an item recently, a Transformers Wreckers Leadfoot and Masterdominus set. The rep I chatted with seemed as unhappy about the situation as I was and instantly refunded me the full set price, telling me to keep the set with their apologies. 

So yeah, it is definitely worth reaching out to them.

[F For Fake]

On 10/25/2023 at 10:15 AM, Cat said:

I had this happen to an item recently, a Transformers Wreckers Leadfoot and Masterdominus set. The rep I chatted with seemed as unhappy about the situation as I was and instantly refunded me the full set price, telling me to keep the set with their apologies. 

So yeah, it is definitely worth reaching out to them.

I'm glad it worked out for you! My return has been approved and they've already dispatched a new one, so I just need to drop this one off at the UPS store. Hopefully the next one is at least in the brown box it came in. I don't have to have it double/triple boxed, but just SOMETHING would be nice ha

[Cat]

On 10/26/2023 at 12:19 AM, F For Fake said:

I'm glad it worked out for you! My return has been approved and they've already dispatched a new one, so I just need to drop this one off at the UPS store. Hopefully the next one is at least in the brown box it came in. I don't have to have it double/triple boxed, but just SOMETHING would be nice ha

Oh, did you chat with them first? Odd that we got such disparities in our responses. 

[F For Fake]

On 10/25/2023 at 10:21 AM, Cat said:

Oh, did you chat with them first? Odd that we got such disparities in our responses. 

No, i just went through the normal automated return process. I've had them comp me on damage items in the past, let me keep the original while they sent a replacement, but usually it was for cheaper stuff. I wouldn't expect them to do that with an $80 piece like this, so as long as they're willing to take it back and send me another one, I'm good. The new one should be here Monday, fair enough!

[fantastic_four]

On 10/25/2023 at 10:15 AM, Cat said:

The rep I chatted with seemed as unhappy about the situation as I was and instantly refunded me the full set price

Even when you're being completely unreasonable they act like you're totally right.  I've always heard that Bezos demands that classic "the customer is always right" attitude across Amazon's entire shopping experience.

What pisses me off the most about them is the way they jack prices up above MSRP regularly even on items that are readily available from other smaller retailers.  I'm talking here about items sold by Amazon, not by the third-party sellers that are pervasive on their site.  They have automatic price checking bots that check larger retailers, and if they have no major competitors for an item they usually jack the price up on that item.  Walmart does this now too, but they're TERRIBLE at it.  They will jack up prices to double or triple MSRP on items sold by and fulfilled by themselves, and it's really irritating.

I don't even trust Amazon and Walmart as a place to check market prices on food, clothes, furniture, etc anymore since they jack prices up unreasonably high so often.  

[Cat]

On 10/26/2023 at 12:24 AM, F For Fake said:

No, i just went through the normal automated return process. I've had them comp me on damage items in the past, let me keep the original while they sent a replacement, but usually it was for cheaper stuff. I wouldn't expect them to do that with an $80 piece like this, so as long as they're willing to take it back and send me another one, I'm good. The new one should be here Monday, fair enough!

Fair enough, whatever makes you happy. I wasn't expecting anything free, I just wanted to alert them about this practice, which they shouldn't do with Collector's items, so I was very surprised and thankful at the outcome. 

[Buzzetta]

On 10/25/2023 at 10:24 AM, fantastic_four said:

Even when you're being completely unreasonable they act like you're totally right.  I've always heard that Bezos demands that classic "the customer is always right" attitude across Amazon's entire shopping experience.

What pisses me off the most about them is the way they jack prices up above MSRP regularly even on items that are readily available from other smaller retailers.  I'm talking here about items sold by Amazon, not by the third-party sellers that are pervasive on their site.  They have automatic price checking bots that check larger retailers, and if they have no major competitors for an item they usually jack the price up on that item.  Walmart does this now too, but they're TERRIBLE at it.  They will jack up prices to double or triple MSRP on items sold by and fulfilled by themselves, and it's really irritating.

I don't even trust Amazon and Walmart as a place to check market prices on food, clothes, furniture, etc anymore since they jack prices up unreasonably high so often.  

In my case Amazon is almost always cheaper than brick and mortar for almost everything from clothing to even sneakers.   I went to the outlets here on Long Island as my comfortable sneaker is being cycled out.  They were cheaper on Amazon.  When I needed butcher twine for cooking.  I was driving around for well over an hour until I started questioning my life choices and realized, I could just order it on Amazon and have it in two days. 

 Then there are other things.  When I needed an insecticide to wipe something out that was illegal for use in NY, I hit "submit" anyway and Amazon delivered. 

Especially with my schedule I am getting to the point where the majority of my groceries are purchased at Costco, clothing directly from the manufacturer's site or Amazon, and everything else from Amazon. 

[DougC]

I have loved lurking in this thread and seeing everything and will now blame everyone here for peer pressuring me into buying one of my favorite Electra/DD costumes (I refuse to take responsibility for my actions):

Picture is from the internet; but she was in the clearance aisle at walmart for $7 with a damaged card.

[fantastic_four]

On 10/27/2023 at 8:56 PM, DougC said:

I have loved lurking in this thread and seeing everything and will now blame everyone here for peer pressuring me into buying one of my favorite Electra/DD costumes (I refuse to take responsibility for my actions):

Picture is from the internet; but she was in the clearance aisle at walmart for $7 with a damaged card.

Love that Elektra Daredevil figure.  The heads from the other Elektra figures also fit onto that version you bought.

[Buzzetta]

Available January 1st.

No official announcement but it has been leaked. 

 

[Buzzetta]

Also leaked... no official images but here is the box... 

Avengers Tower (Modular)

 

[Buzzetta]

Chuckles arrived... 

 

[Buzzetta]

And my inner 8 year old is happy.   Clutch was the first GI Joe figure I ever received. 

I am being very selective and careful with what I buy from this line... This was a must. 

[D84]

I updated some of the parts on Empire Strikes Back Han Solo custom man dolly.

[Cat]

I guess this goes here? I got my Luke Skywalker ROTJ Force FX Elite lightsabre today. Fun little piece of kit. Don't know if it's worth the price compared to the $10 I paid for the regular plastic version, I was expecting the metal one to be heavier, like my old Master Replicas one, but it's really light. It'd be nice if the blade had more options, but oh well. It'll still make a cool display piece, which is what I wanted out of it. 

[Buzzetta]

So... I tentatively booked Disney World for 2024.  

What goodies do I want to pick up and why did you immediately start listing the Star Wars stuff?

Edited October 30, 2023 by Buzzetta

[Buzzetta]

On 10/29/2023 at 7:21 PM, Buzzetta said:

Available January 1st.

No official announcement but it has been leaked. 

 

And Lego responded by revealing the Museum a month earlier than they usually do.   

 

Official images: