Dollar Store Toy Box

Ok, so I’ve made my rounds to many a dollar store and seen many action figures, most of which have high lead content in the many layers of paint they add to them, and I don’t recall seeing so much as a single action figure that could be remotely classified as a villain, real or knock off.

Where are all the villains?

Where are all the guys that the City Nimrods and Batman Evil Killer are supposed beat up?

Nimrods and Evil Killer ready to fight….. no one?

I’m surprised I haven’t come across a single villain type action figure. Well, there was the pirate play set, but they aren’t action figures and they’re quite small, combat army play set small. The blue Nimrod could be Venom, but it could also be a two pack regular and ice Spiderman. I also have some transforming construction vehicles which could be compared to the Constructicons from Transformers, but they are more Bob The Builder than sinister.

Imagine this, you’re a kid and you get the new combat Army Pete action figure and he’s got no one to beat up. I’ve got the City Nimrods and Batman rip off action figures, how about an Om-nom or The Jokem action figure?

Many kids have their favorite super hero, but it’s the villains who get most of the attention, so why not make the villains? For every good kid who wants to be Superman or Spiderman, you got some other kid wanting to be Darth Vader or a Klingon. Villains work either way, as the primary or secondary figure. I may not have seen any true villains yet or they may not exist.

Anyone see any villain action figures at a dollar or discount store, real or knock off?

If so, how about sending a picture of it and mention which dollar or discount store you got it from?

It would be interesting to see what is out there and I can show them in a future post.

Posted on May 19th, 2009 by Mike
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It’s been quite a while since I have posted anything to the site really. Been too busy with other things and haven’t been able to update as much as I wanted to and thought I would have.

That’s not to say I haven’t been working on it. I have now added seven new pages and they are split up into two new sidebar sections. The first one is called “The Armoury” and it will hold any pages related to the toy guns and other artillery items. The second one is the “Media and Games” section and it will be home to any pages related to the video clips and online games I make or want to show.

I plan on getting back into regular updates and posting new videos and games, so keep an eye out for new additions.

Posted on February 23rd, 2009 by Mike
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A New Cumberland man, Charlie Bourque, entered the Shop ‘n Win Millionaire Sweepstakes contest at a Dollar General he frequently shops at and ended up winning the one million dollar prize.

The contest involved making a purchase and then entering the amount on the receipt to an online form on the Dollar General website. He saw the promotion after going in to get a candy bar, usually less than one dollar or even two for one dollar.

When they first called to inform him that he had won, he thought it was a joke and hung up on them. I don’t blame him since radio stations like to make that sort of prank for a laugh.

They called again and sent the paperwork so he went to the Dollar General store to find out if he had won a lesser $10,000 prize in the contest or the million.

I guess that’s one way to get people to shop at dollar stores again. It’s not like he had to spend much money to be entered, all he bought was a candy bar. They were enjoying increased profits recently so they could probably afford a contest with a million dollar grand prize.

It’s a good lesson to enter contests like that. The chances of winning could be good if people, figuring they won’t win, don’t enter.

Read the news article here.

Posted on January 3rd, 2009 by Mike
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I heard on the radio today that with the way the economy is going right now, dollar stores are having a tough time selling things for a dollar. The prices on some items could be raised to $1.25, $1.50 or even $1.75 on items normally priced $1, meaning less savings.
Read more…

Posted on September 18th, 2008 by Mike
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It looks like the mystery of the Spiderman Power Ranger might be solved. A while back I posted a picture of a toy play set I found at a dollar store. It was a set of five Power Rangers with Spiderman as the Red Ranger. The toy was made in China so I figured it was a knock off of either the Power Rangers or Spiderman, it didn’t matter which, it’s not something you see in North America.

Anyway, I happened to come across an opening video for a live action Spiderman from Japan back in the 70′s. He has a motorcycle, instead of the scooter from the movie, and he even has a Megazord!!!

So it looks like the toy was not a North American Spiderman knock off, it was based on the Japanese Spiderman. It still might be some form of knock off since the show was not Spiderman and Power Rangers. Well that’s not true, it could have said that, I don’t know. I can’t read Japanese. If I could, I would be too busy playing all the awesome video games that are never translated.

Sure, the TV show is pretty cheesy, but give it some slack. It was made in the 70′s. Besides, is it really worse than the Italian Spiderman?

Posted on June 10th, 2008 by Mike
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I thought this was an amusing post since many of the dollar store Spiderman toys, all the ones I have reviewed so far, come from China. It seems they get Spiderman to do many wacky things there. It might explain some of the toys that I found at the dollar store.

Take a look at these pictures of Spiderman washing windows in China. Actually, if you look carefully, in the first picture you can see a second set of Spiderman hands washing the windows. I guess they got several workers to put on the Spiderman costumes for the cleaning. It would’ve been really neat to see the Spidermen cleaning the windows from the inside or outside. Apparently, having the workers wear the Spiderman costumes was done for a guest to make the cleaning more interesting. Not bad, but it makes me wonder what task they would get their workers to dress up as Batman for?

But, if that wasn’t enough, there’s a link off that post to a young man in Singapore named Batman Bin Suparman(with picture of the birth certificate). Can you imagine growing up with that kind of name? Other than it being an oddity that both names end with “man”, you probably wouldn’t get made fun of. It’s not clear what the parent’s last name is and I am not sure how naming goes in Singapore, but wouldn’t the last name need to be the last name of the parents? I doubt the last name is Suparman.

Posted on June 6th, 2008 by Mike
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There’s a funny skit on Mad TV about the toy factories in China. The skit involves a toy factory in China making a video to show their factory has high quality standards because of all the issues with high lead levels in toys. Bobby Lee plays the goofy lead tester.

In case this needs to be said, for those of you who don’t know Mad TV, this is just a humorous skit and not real. I’m not implying that’s what’s going on. Many countries are at fault for the various recalls including Canada. If I find any funny skits about Canadian toy factories I will include them to.

Bobby Lee also plays a Korean scientist, pretty much the same as the Chinese lead tester.

Posted on May 6th, 2008 by Mike
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Whenever you make a purchase at a store, you are most likely given a sales receipt for your purchases. With the holidays here, and the usual gift exchanging from stores afterwards, most people will hold onto the receipts just in case. The sales receipt lists several important information points for the customer such as the date and time they purchased the items, a detailed listing of what they bought and the price. The subtotal is taxed and a grand total is calculated.
Read more…

Posted on December 24th, 2007 by Mike
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Toys have been taking a big hit the last half of the year with massive recalls for high lead content in paint and other health risks. Now another health issue has come up which could affect toy sales and it is not something most businesses want to hear. According to Yahoo Lifestyle, it turns out that any toys with a sound feature could potentially damage hearing. The decibel levels in some toys could cause hearing loss with extended use or close proximity to the ear.
Read more…

Posted on December 12th, 2007 by Mike
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A friend forwarded me this article from consumerist.com. The number of recalled products hits 16.2 million for 2007 due to lead contamination. That’s a disturbing number of toys to be recalled. According to injuryboard.com, the first excessive lead toy recall was issued on August 1 of this year by Mattel-Fisher Price. It has taken a mere 4 months to accumulate over 16 million products, the latest one being Aquadots because they were coated with a chemical that when swallowed acts like the date rape drug.
Read more…

Posted on December 1st, 2007 by Mike
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