X-Entertainment.com X-Entertainment UGO
You are all doomed. Why not surrender? We might let you live.

08/27/2004: 84 Mewtwos, 200 Gray Gorillas.

When faced with a clearance sale — a major clearance sale — I often encounter trouble. Instead of just buying a single liquidated item, I tend to buy as many as possible regardless of need or even desire to own them. The sickness first surfaced eons ago (eons meaning several years of course) at Toys ‘R’ Us, where I found Wheeled Warriors accessory packs marked down to a literal eight cents each. (these were the blisterpacks containing extra tires, alien brains and guns for Saw Boss and pals) When I realized that a measly buck could a dozen toys, some little bell went off in my head and has consistently forced me to repeat the process whenever the opportunity presented itself. With that…

Some of you might have noticed TRU’s major clearance sales going on — not sure if this plays into the alleged “no more toys” rule, but whatever the case, shit’s cheap. They’ve got this deal where anything with an already marked-down green price tag is 50% off, so you’re really clashing oars with all the housewives doing their early Christmas shopping. If you can survive that, treasures await — check out that bag of Pokemon Mewtwo plushies. Quarter a pop. I have no conceivable use for 84 Mewtwo dolls, but stand confident that, someday, I will undoubtedly safe a life using 84 Mewtwo dolls.

And, found at a nearby closeout store, here’s a bag of 29-cent promotional Congo figures. Gray gorillas! The chilling fact that promotional figures for Congo actually exist notwithstanding, it’s always interesting to waltz up to a tired checkout girl and dump a basket full of plastic monkeys on the table. I think there’s twenty of ‘em or so. Twenty gray gorillas, 84 Mewtwos, another chunk of the closet that can no longer be used for clothes.


Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

Bookmark and Share


Discussion Thread: 145 comments

That rocks Cameron T!!!! You should try to buy it off of them seeing that they just wanna give everything away anyways. It would surely be a collector’s item and also a cherished keepsake for any wide eyed kid from the mid to late 80’s. Another thing that rocked about Toy’s ‘R’ Us was that thier video games were always Cheaper than Children’s Palace/Child World which was located across the street from TRU back in the day where i shopped. No wonder Children’s Palace was totally crushed by Geoffery and his minions. Now that building has since become a Cicuit City which is now across the street from Best Buy, although the TRU is still intact.

Ghosted by phunqsauce @ 08/28/2004 1:02 AM EDT


Just wanted to point out that Nichole Ritchie was the one who thought people buy walls at WalMart. While we’re talking about Paris Hilton: Guess who’s releasing their freaking memoirs next month? What great life lessons has she learned at 23 that she absolutely needs to impart on the world at large? Eh, I can talk shit, but I’ll probably buy the damn thing. Loves it.

Ghosted by squee4242 @ 08/28/2004 1:07 AM EDT


I’m going to Toys R Us next month to buy the new Pokémon game! So I guess I too am going to get Pokémon at Toys R Us too! Except I’ll be paying like $40… I guess it’s not as much of a bargain.

Ghosted by Brandon @ 08/28/2004 1:56 AM EDT


I’m going to Toys R Us next month to buy the new Pokémon game! So I guess I too am going to get Pokémon at Toys R Us too! Except I’ll be paying like $40… I guess it’s not as much of a bargain.

Ghosted by Brandon @ 08/28/2004 1:56 AM EDT


Hmmmm… I’d be disturbed knowing that you bought so many pokemon, period. I am rather more disturbed that you bought so many of the same pokemon plushies. Let’s face it here, you have got an impulse buying problem. This problem is even worse that you just shove them in a closet with all your other impulse items. I also have a problem, but even I do not buy 84 of the same pokemon plushy. Not matter what the price. *Wink*

Ghosted by TAK @ 08/28/2004 3:42 AM EDT


Isn’t Walm-Mart named afer the guy who founded them – Sam Walston? Or did I just dream that?

Ghosted by trajeal @ 08/28/2004 7:33 AM EDT


trajeal: Yeah, that’s right.

That’s also why "Sam’s" is called "Sam’s"

Ghosted by Cameron T. @ 08/28/2004 8:55 AM EDT


Hey…we should all praise impulse buying. After Matt reviewed the TMNT X-mas special, We Wish You a Turtle Christmas, I found a used copy online and bought it within a half hour of reading the article. I haven’t regretted it yet.

Ghosted by 1drland @ 08/28/2004 8:58 AM EDT


Dang. I couldn’t find anything older than the Digimon E-Z Bake Oven(or something to that extent) at my location. I did, however, manage to snag one of those keen deluxe talking Gollums with changable heads at half off. How could anybody pass a toy that sings the "Wish for a fish" song?

Ghosted by cheaptrick @ 08/28/2004 10:52 AM EDT


I want to feel some measure of grief that TRU is closing up shop, but the truth is that my three local stores have sucked very badly for a long, long time now. But here’s a tear for nostalgia’s sake. Wait, I just realized that this means no more "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" sales on video games… Damn it. Tear #2.

Wal-Mart serves its purpose as a retailer of cheaply-priced, cheaply-made products, that’s all. I don’t really see that as a good or bad thing, it is what it is. Sometimes I need stuff like that in my life, sometimes I don’t. I’m not going to bother with inciteful comments about how the company is "evil" but I will say that whenever I visit my nearest Wal-Mart — which is implausibly located in the shopping plaza of an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood — it’s like I’ve been transported away from urban Southern California and into trailer trash town, complete with scraggly handlebar-sporting rednecks wearing dingy flannels and worn hunting caps. I swear I’ve never seen those Wal-Mart customers anywhere else, just within the confines of that store…

Ghosted by rapsodist @ 08/28/2004 1:37 PM EDT


Wal-Mart (n) – a place for white trash families who may or may not all have mullets to publicly beat their children.

I live in an area where such people are commonplace, but something about Wal-Mart seems to attract them more than any other place. I’m just thankful that I live within a short walk of the only Starbucks within 100 miles and that there aren’t any open spaces nearby for new Wal-Marts to rise from the fires of hell… I shall now go to TRU and enjoy it while I can, like visiting some dying relative. I’m hoping for an army of Poliwhirls, but we shall see…

Ghosted by phillip @ 08/28/2004 2:41 PM EDT


Everyone is very right; Wal-Mart stocks lots and lots of creepy people, no matter which one you go to. I’ll never forget the first time I stepped into a Wal-Mart; it was pretty surreal. Not only is everyone trailer trash, they also each come with about 5 screaming greedy kids. I walked past this waddling crying kid yelling over and over, "I WANT IT I WANT IT I WANT IT I WANT IT I WANT IT I WANT IT I WANT IT I WANT IT!!!" And you know what he was holding? A Britney Spears doll. o_O

Ghosted by Mars @ 08/28/2004 3:26 PM EDT


Okay, we can save Wal-Mart. We just nees to: 1. Buy NOTHING from the evil Wal-Mart (DO YOU HEAR ME! NOTHING!) 2. Put Flaming Bags of DOG Poop on the porch of EVERY Wal Mart Manager and 3. BUY AS MUCH AS YOU CAN FROM TOYS R US, EVEN IF IT SUCKS!
PS. Matt, howcome you haven’t fufilled my request for a Bionicle article (bzpower.com)? And also WHEN WILL WE GET THE PROMISED SUPER-NATURALS ARTICLE?!

Ghosted by TOM @ 08/28/2004 3:41 PM EDT


Hmm…Maybe my discounted Pokemon hair scrunchies (.25 from TRU) could get together with Matt’s Mewtwos. A Poke Party!

Ghosted by Jessie @ 08/28/2004 4:37 PM EDT


Went to TRU today. They had the 50% off sales, too, but no Mew-Twos. :( I think they are just reducing stock and getting ready for Christmas season.

BTW, I remember reading that TRU wouldn’t close any stores or say any more about getting out of the toy business until after Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, at Target today, I found the Playmobil Advent Calendar for this year. You better go get one now, Matt, before they’re all sold out! :)

Ghosted by Cameron T. @ 08/28/2004 5:10 PM EDT


Just adding to tom’s idea, besides not buying at Wal-Mart, go in there and demand they stock all kinds of items. Confuse them! Make them have to order large amounts of stuff due to "Consumer Demand" then, not buy them.
The place ain’t just the same since Mr. Sam died. Once, he heard tell of complaints about a shift manager at the W-M in Chickasha (big town west of my town of Anadarko) and decided to see for himself what was up. He comes in, about the time said manager was on-shift, and starts to check out the store. If you ever seen photos of Boss Walton out and about among the rabble that frequent his stores, you know that he dressed like any other elder in shopping mode, in fact, you wouldn’t have looked at him twice if you passed him by. Soon he began to ask questions about the service and asked to see the manager. He shows up and treats Mr. Sam poorly, thinking that he can just shoo this old man away with his ugly charms. Boss W soon had his fill of sour holier-than-thou ‘tude, and says "Get your stuff and get out of the store!" "What? Who are you to say that?" "I am your boss. Get out now." "You are not. I’ll call the real boss, the man who owns this store, and make him throw you out!" Sam pulls out a portable phone, "Don’t bother, I’ll do it." A button press later, and a few quick words, the Store owner rushes over and the first thing he tells the shift manager is, "This is Sam Walton, and you are fired." No chance of that kind of justice nowadays.

Ghosted by kingklash @ 08/28/2004 6:13 PM EDT


I mean east of my town. My brain went for a little walk and forgot to leave a note.

Ghosted by kingklash @ 08/28/2004 6:15 PM EDT


I am awaiting an adventure in-line with Spiderman counts Crayons, or some such thing… involving all of the Mew2’s.

Good tip about the TRU. Thanks!

Ghosted by Barry J. Deeper @ 08/28/2004 7:18 PM EDT


That’s an awesome Sam Walston story, kingklash. When did he die? I just read Nickel and Dimed, about a upper middle class author who decides to see if she can make it by only working minimum wage jobs. She ends up at Walmart and actually tries to get a labor union started. I think she worked there in 1999, so I was wondering when (in relation) that Sam died, and if it was as bad as she said it was beforehand.

Ghosted by trajeal @ 08/28/2004 8:58 PM EDT


Ah, Wal-Mart. If I wanted edited/botched crap, I’d go to one of those bootleg video game stores in Taiwan or Singapore or whatever.

Ghosted by Yama @ 08/28/2004 9:42 PM EDT


I have never been in a TRU store before. Ever.
Up here in Canadia, things are looking up for the company though.

And didn’t the Pokemon craze die a few years ago? Maybe 4?

Ghosted by RPharazon @ 08/28/2004 11:06 PM EDT


Pokemon is still around, although it is not as strong recently. The release of two new games (fire red and leaf green) may fuel the fire–though these games are just remixes of the original first two games. However, this in itself may bring older players back who wish to capitalize on nostalgia.

I, for one, am just happy to see a return to the orginal 150 monsters. I never got into gold/silver and the rest because I didn’t like all the new monsters….

Ghosted by Cameron T. @ 08/29/2004 12:12 PM EDT


84 Mewtwo’s, are you fucking insane?

Ghosted by Jay @ 08/29/2004 9:47 AM EDT


The best thing to do is to throw them off a tall building, and put notes on each of them: ‘Yours if you want it’.

I can hear the news now: ‘Crazy man throws 84 Mewtwo’s off building, sparks new pokemon craze worldwide’.

Ghosted by RPharazon @ 08/29/2004 10:18 AM EDT


I’ve got the BK gold Pokemon card of MewTwo. Cool display ball.

Ghosted by kingklash @ 08/29/2004 4:32 PM EDT


I just wanna clear something up before rumors about TRU closing continue any further. First off, Kids R Us and the Imaginarium stores closed about a year ago…which comes as no suprise, because neither of these stores where profitable. BRU does make alot more money then TRU, this much is true, but they wont announce if they will split the company until after the holidays, duh. Even if they do, they will only close about 200 TRU stores, and most of those will be either international stores or ones that TRU owns the property outright, since thats how they would make all their money, on sale of the land and building. I dont mean to get huffy about this issue, but I work for TRU and im tired of people coming to me and saying things like "Hey is it true your store is gonna close, your all gonna lose your jobs and have to go on welfare and food stamps to feed your kids? Cause if so I REALLY wanna catch that clearance sale!" So to sum it up, unless you live near a really small TRU or one that the company owns outright, enjoy the green tag sale, the company is just liqudating crap it couldnt otherwise sell(who else besides Matt would buy a bagful of Congo apes?) but dont expect your TRU to close at the start of the next fiscal quarter.

Ghosted by MintGreenGoblin @ 08/29/2004 4:37 PM EDT


August 13 (Opinion):
A Lesson from Toys ‘Were’ Us: Use Tech to Personalize

Agust 23:
Toys R Us still selling toys

August 28:
Toys R Us sees ’savior’ in Babies R Us

Ghosted by ME @ 08/29/2004 5:50 PM EDT


Thanks for the info, MGG. I would be sad beyond reason if the nearby TRU went down; without that store, there certainly would never have been an X-E.

Ghosted by Matt @ 08/29/2004 5:51 PM EDT


Haha I like King’s idea of MewTwos going out to the first 84 people to set up an account. Is that still in the works? Not like I’m around much anymore, but still!

Ghosted by Gabbylicious @ 08/29/2004 6:22 PM EDT


I’ve tried to figure out ways to do it to no avail; it can be done, but it would involve changing the blog into a different format. We’ll see. There could be ways around it but I lack the skillz yo.

Ghosted by Matt @ 08/29/2004 6:29 PM EDT


Is this site PhP able? or is it just HTML?
I’m pretty knowledable in PhP and could help.

Ghosted by RPharazon @ 08/29/2004 6:54 PM EDT


Thanks for the inside stuff, MGG, but not all Kid’s "Backwards R" Us’s are closed…I think the one attached to my TRU is still open. Or did you mean stand-alone KRU?

Ghosted by Cameron T. @ 08/29/2004 7:22 PM EDT


It’s actually neither, RPh. The main site is all HTML currently, though.

Ghosted by Matt @ 08/29/2004 8:05 PM EDT


I can only imagine the conversation that happens before a trip to Walmart/Target/ even TRU:

(camera zooms in on poor Latino family)

Juango: Mama, yo quiero jugar Xbox.

Mom: Ok, Juango, let’s go to Target.

Dad: YO JUAN, JUANGO, GO, ELIZA, NADIA, GUIDO, CONSUELO, JOSE, ANTONIO, AND ALL THE OTHER 782 KIDS WHO YOUR MOTHER BIRTHED ON THE SMUGGING VAN TO THE US! WE’RE GOING TO TARGET! OH YEAH, I GOT PROMOTED AT MCDONALDS! I’M NOW A JANITOR!

or….

(zoom in on a white trash family)

Billy Clem Bubba Joe: He paw, I wanna see them fancy clothes with the zippers and the fuzzy stuff not made from roadkill!

Dad: OK, Iz a wanna buy me a new gun!

Mom: We can’t afford that! So Billy Clem Bubba Joe, sneak it out un’rneath y’all mullet! (gives birth to another baby)

TRU may be better for toys, but go to specialty stores like EB Games for deals on Video Games

Ghosted by DtotheG @ 08/29/2004 8:11 PM EDT


Hmm…i saw a bzpower comment up there. Bzpower sucks.

There.

Ghosted by Walks @ 08/29/2004 10:43 PM EDT


I miss Captain Power and the soldiers of the future. Kids could use a role model like lieutentant Tank Ellis nowadays. I played the home videos relentlessly using the Phantom Striker blasting away at those flashing orange targets and avaoiding the yellow ones. Thats another long awaited toy i received from toys r us back in the day. sigh…..

Ghosted by phunqsauce @ 08/30/2004 1:24 AM EDT


I too, like MintGreenGoblin work at TRU…have for the last year. The only reason TRU is in the news is the fact that Babies R Us is splittling off from TRU as it brings it far more income and will help with the company.

There’s a new CEO of TRU recently, and this is just one of the plans he has to get the wrinkled surface of TRU shining again. Worry not kiddies, although Walmart is still ass raping us on toy sales, TRU is going to be around for a while.

Though if they do close, and a spree of mass murders starts happening in the Twin Cities (we’re talking Minnesota here folks) it’s all my doing.

Ghosted by Buhhhrito @ 08/30/2004 1:39 AM EDT


No outstanding deals at my local TRU.

Even at 50% off, the Masters of the Universe stuff they had was a little to expensive for me.

Ghosted by Ubu Rex @ 08/30/2004 11:17 AM EDT


Finishh cobra chia plot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ghosted by a @ 08/30/2004 6:23 PM EDT


I dunno if its been said, but Juicy Fruit (or whatever you mentioned) is now 30 cents. Seriously.

Also, I just read a recipe for quails that involved eating them whole, holding them by the beak. Ew.

And one of those chickens in a family restaurant for some reason sent me and my step-sister into conniptions of laughter and I fell on the floor in the lobby cackling. We were on vacation so no one knew us.
I don’t remember what was so funny about it…

Ghosted by Piscez @ 08/30/2004 7:18 PM EDT


Back in my hometown (Patterson, California just you try to find it on a map) there is a machine in a local pizza place (Pizza Plus) much like the chicken machine, except, instead of the chicken it’s Dino from the Flintstones, when you pop in a quarter, Dino spins around, the voice Fred says "YABBA DABBA DO! YABBA DABBA DO! DINO FAXED YOU!" and a plastic peice of Dino shit pops out. Joy ensues.

Ghosted by Alix @ 08/30/2004 8:53 PM EDT


Matt–the comment link at the end of the vending machine article incorrectly leads here. Might want to fix it…

Ghosted by Cameron T. @ 08/30/2004 9:49 PM EDT


Alright! Comment #51! Hooray for vending machines. And grape pop.

I’ve seen a vending machine like the chicken one, only it was a clown. I hate clowns. I HATE THEM!!!

Ghosted by Walks @ 08/30/2004 10:12 PM EDT


I saw on of those chicken vending machines at a garage sale about a month ago, it looked to be from the 60’s or 70’s and was all metal. I did not inquire about the price because I had no desire to buy it.

We had a button quail as a pet for about 6 months, and they are not good pets (unless you raise then from birth, I hear). If you take them out of their cage and try to hold them, they freak out and lose half their feathers, and then run around the room and sometimes under the stove. Then you spend the next 3 hours trying to coax them out from under the stove, worrying that they will somehow catch fire from the pilot light. So we just left ours in its cage, feeding it corn meal and gravel. The only good thing about them is that they are super cute and make little crowing sounds at dawn, and when they miss you. Ours was a male, and I would make female mating calls to him and he would respond, so I guess he was sexually attracted to me.

Ghosted by Andrea @ 08/31/2004 12:44 PM EDT


We had these children’s shops, called "Reggie’s". We’d always hang around in them while Mom did grocery shopping… Drool over all the pc games, silly plastic boardgames, barbie horsies, etch-a-sketches, and thundercatses. South Africa never had the second thundercats series, even, although we got the figures for them. We just had no clue who they were. I thought Pumyra was "Punyura" for years, cos let’s face it, 6-year-olds can’t read.

Reggies eventually closed, as was too damn expensive. Back when the rand was on par with dollars, barbie horses cost 100 bucks. Bloody sanctions. So my whole life was about "look and don’t touch". Toys back then were conspicuous consumption. You had status if you could afford to buy your kids more than ten action-figures… Needless to say, I had two barbies, four mylittle ponies and the barbie horse. That’s all, apart from the lego. We don’t have a toys-are-us here, although there are huge ones in Joburg. ::glowers enviously::

Only matt would buy 160000 of the ugliest plush pokemon on earth. Go matt! Now all I need to do is go to The Land Of Opportunity and help everyone to blow up the Walmarts.

What’s the real definition of a pokemon? Jamaican proctologist.

mwahahahaaaaa.

Ghosted by eminentfreak @ 08/31/2004 5:53 AM EDT


Great article, Matt- and stop dissing your Spiderman crayon review! I thought it was an amazing adventure through a box of crayons. Nice GUMMI BEARS plug! :)

Ghosted by Muppet Baby @ 08/31/2004 10:49 AM EDT


I’m talking about the Gummi Bears reference in the vending maching article…not spidey’s review. Gummi Bears rocked mega hardcore. Gummi Bears? or Gummie Bears? hmmm…i loved them, but dont know how to spell!

Ghosted by Muppet Baby @ 08/31/2004 10:53 AM EDT


Matt,
After reading this entry, I would be very interested in an article that would tour your place of residence. I can’t imagine with all the stuff and items you have that you would have to climb over piles just to get out your door. Unless you have like 3 storage units at the EZ-U Storage. It would be like XE-Cribs.

Ghosted by Dik Fishman @ 08/31/2004 11:32 AM EDT


Once in the lettercol of ToyFare, A boy wrote to say he had a way to keep the really annoying, airheaded, giggling girls away from him: he bought a few cheap Pokemon plushes (some of the really cute ones), gutted them, and wore the pelts on his backpack. Maybe if Matt can get a couple hundred more, he can make a coat.

Ghosted by kingklash @ 08/31/2004 12:10 PM EDT


There was a sale like that out here in Ohio at Toys R Us. But that was with Psyducks, Raichus, a few Venusaurs, and a crapload of Mewtwos.

I ended up buying 4 Psyducks.

Ghosted by Drew @ 08/31/2004 2:07 PM EDT


Add A New Comment!