X-Entertainment.com X-Entertainment.com A Proud UGO Affiliate
X-Entertainment loves Christmas and will not stop talking about it, ever.

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 on 08/27/2004. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 146 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.

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 08/28/2004 1:02 AM


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 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/people_paris_hilton">the damn thing. Loves it.

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 08/28/2004 1:07 AM


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.

Chestnuts roasted by Brandon @ 08/28/2004 1:56 AM


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.

Chestnuts roasted by Brandon @ 08/28/2004 1:56 AM


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*

Chestnuts roasted by TAK @ 08/28/2004 3:42 AM


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

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 08/28/2004 7:33 AM


trajeal: Yeah, that’s right.

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

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron T. @ 08/28/2004 8:55 AM


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.

Chestnuts roasted by 1drland @ 08/28/2004 8:58 AM


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?

Chestnuts roasted by cheaptrick @ 08/28/2004 10:52 AM


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…

Chestnuts roasted by rapsodist @ 08/28/2004 1:37 PM


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…

Chestnuts roasted by phillip @ 08/28/2004 2:41 PM


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

Chestnuts roasted by Mars @ 08/28/2004 3:26 PM


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?!

Chestnuts roasted by TOM @ 08/28/2004 3:41 PM


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

Chestnuts roasted by Jessie @ 08/28/2004 4:37 PM


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! :)

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron T. @ 08/28/2004 5:10 PM


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.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 08/28/2004 6:13 PM


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

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 08/28/2004 6:15 PM


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!

Chestnuts roasted by Barry J. Deeper @ 08/28/2004 7:18 PM


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.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 08/28/2004 8:58 PM


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.

Chestnuts roasted by Yama @ 08/28/2004 9:42 PM


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?

Chestnuts roasted by RPharazon @ 08/28/2004 11:06 PM


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….

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron T. @ 08/29/2004 12:12 PM


84 Mewtwo’s, are you fucking insane?

Chestnuts roasted by Jay @ 08/29/2004 9:47 AM


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’.

Chestnuts roasted by RPharazon @ 08/29/2004 10:18 AM


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

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 08/29/2004 4:32 PM


Add A New Comment!