Toy swapping

Toy swapping, in the context of toy collecting, refers to the practice of buying a new toy, opening the packaging, replacing the content with another toy (or something else entirely), then returining the packaging with the replaced content to the store and claiming the money back. In essence, this means getting a new toy for free while leaving the store with an older toy (or complete junk) that will most likely never sell. Obviously, this situation is anything but desirable.

The problems of toy swapping are multifold. Fans and collectors usually know what the toy they're looking for is supposed to look like, so they most likely won't pick up a swapped toy, unless they're not paying attention for whatever reason. Therefore, the most likely victims of this practice are parents who buy a toy for their kid. Imagine the look on a child's face when he gets Movie Leader Class Optimus Prime for his birthday, opens the packaging and finds an old, beat-up Robots in Disguise Optimus Prime inside.

The practice of toy swapping is not limited to the Transformers toylines, but is considered an easy way of getting new toys for "free" by fans from all kinds of different toylines. Examples of reported Transformers-related incidents include:


 * Armada Giga-Con Jetfire, with the packaging including nothing but the chest plate.
 * One half of a broken up Robots in Disguise Ultra Magnus in a much smaller box that belonged to a toy from a later line.
 * Alternators Dead End, with the packaging containing a non-transforming black Dodve Viper convertible model car. This was actually sold on eBay as a "rare factory error variant" of Alternators Side Swipe.
 * A painted piece of wood (!) in a Transformers packaging.
 * Cybertron Leader Class Optimus Prime, with the packaging containing a random bootleg toy robot.
 * Movie Voyager Ratchet and Movie Voyager Ironhide, with the packaging containing either Cybertron Deluxe Demolishor or Cybertron Voyager Mudflap.

Interestingly enough, the only large-scale reports of such occurrences hail from North America (i.e. USA and Canada), with overtly liberal laws allowing people to return opened products to stores and claiming their money back usually being blamed. Also, stores like Wal*Mart are often accused of not paying their employees enough to care for checking if they're being deceived, as is their policy of always giving customers the benefit of the doubt, especially when the product's packaging includes a note saying "details and color may vary".

Meanwhile, reports from Australia, Asia or Europe, where stores either don't allow returning opened products, or if they do, usually give them a closer examination, are much scarcer, or even pretty much non-existing.