Local Dollar Bazaar Store Closes

Well this is, kind of, disappointing. I was walking by the Dollar Bazaar by my work the other day and I noticed the neon “open” sign it has hanging up wasn’t lit. Upon closer inspection, there was some legal notice on the door (which humorously reminded me of my law class last semester) and it was something along the lines of the store owing over 10,000 dollars. The Dollar Bazaar was the dollar store where I got such toys as the New Concept Bike, City Nimrod, the Battle Tops and the Mobile Phone with the leaking batteries. It was also the place I got some yet to be posted items such as the Space Wars Lightsaber, Soldier Force Paratrooper and the Army 9mm Auto gun, like the SWAT gun, only army. Oh, I also got some funny coloring and activity books, the Superfriends and Star Wars. I am really trying to find the time and energy to post those other toys but I have been so busy with school and work for the past while. All this does is takes away some of the convenience I had of getting unique toys since many of them I have never seen anywhere else. It was just like when there was the dollar section at my work which was eventually rearranged into something...

Five More Toy Videos Uploaded

I decided to post more of the old video footage I have had sitting around for literally years. I used to think it was simple to update content, but that also depends on what you need to update. It takes the better part, if not all, of an evening if I start from scratch in prepping a toy post. I need to take the pictures, transfer them over to my computer, size them how I want and then write the content to go along with the post. That in itself takes quite a bit of time and doesn’t include making a video with the post. I’m really trying to get a video to go along with the toy post if the toy has some action or sound to it, but with school and work it’s hard to find time and/or energy. This old footage was done in a night or two when all I did was record a bunch of toys in action. I posted the battle tops one separately because I hadn’t done the review for it yet, but the following videos already have their associated reviews up. Click the heading for the video if you want to see the original post. Boxing Glove Gun It’s a little blurry, but I’ve seen much worse on Youtube.com. I try it out on a couple of test targets. Dart Board This is the only non-artillery video in the bunch. It actually works pretty well, but it’s a mini dart board so it’s like having to go for the bullseye every time unless you’re close. Mini Disc Blaster Here is a double feature on the mini disc blaster. One of them is supposed to be a bad trial while the other is a good trial, but they both seemed to go ok except the one didn’t want to fire the last few shots. Mini SWAT Gun This was testing one of the targets from the SWAT gun packs with the mini SWAT gun. It was a good test and the toy actually works. Hope you enjoyed...

Transformers Fan To Sell Collection

I know some collectors and one of the worst things you can force a collector to do is sell their collection. They spend a lot of time, energy and money to acquire items and products on a theme, only to have them get rid of it for one reason or another. This is what happened to Shane Fenton when his wife stepped in and insisted he sell his £200,000 Transformers collection to help pay off his mortgage, and of course, free up some space where they live since collections like this tend to take up plenty of room. He states needing more room but in order to get a bigger place he would need the money from selling them, but fortunately for him, he sees it as necessary for the future. His only stipulation is that someone buys the entire thing and appreciates them because he doesn’t want them opened and played with. Once they are opened, they would no longer be collectibles. I’m sure it would be tough to find a buyer though, not a lot of people would have that kind of money to spend. I never liked trying to build any sort of collection. I never wanted to shell out the amounts of money needed to make a worthy collection. That and I don’t have the desire to put up with the frustration in trying to find the missing items of my collection. Read the details of the sale story...

Canada Now Has Product Safety Act

New terms of legislation took effect Monday that allows Ottawa to remove bad products from stores where before they could only request that those products be removed by the manufacturers. The new legislation is called the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act and it covers certain household items, sporting goods, cribs and, naturally, bad toys. However, it doesn’t cover the recall of food, drugs, vehicles or the parts included with them as they have other legislation handling them. This also lets them stop the import of dangerous products and keep them from getting on the shelves in the first place. I’m surprised it has taken this long for this sort of legislation to be passed considering how long recalls and other bad products have been an ongoing issue. When you look at the number of hazards that toys have been recalled for, you’d think they would have added legislation sooner than an incident in 2009 involving cribs. Well, whatever the exact reason they started it and why it took so long to pass the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, it’s here now and hopefully they will put it to good use. Only time will tell if they act on it and we see a decline in unsafe products on our store shelves. CTV has a news report on it...

Dollar Store To Sell Items For A Dollar

Dollar Stores have been getting a lot of slack over the pricing of their merchandise. Larger dollar and discount stores have a wide variety of inventory that costs only a dollar while many smaller dollar and discount stores price their merchandise at several bucks or more, but even bigger chains like Buck or Two and Dollarama have larger items costing more than a dollar. Dollarama has even raised some of those prices by 25, 50 cents to even a dollar more. This has prompted complaints that these stores aren’t true dollar stores because everything isn’t priced a dollar. I think people are just taking things a little too literally in those respects. Dollar and discount stores were most likely set up merely to offload inventory standard department stores couldn’t get rid of at a price that would most likely clear them out. With that in mind, it’s hard to believe they would price larger items at only a dollar just to clear them out. I mention this because I have seen printers for 10 dollars at a Buck or Two store. My initial thought wasn’t, those jerks, their store is Buck or Two, it should be no more than two bucks. From the idea that dollar stores should sell everything for a dollar, or they shouldn’t be called dollar stores, comes Dollar Mountain. The owner, Glen Witter, insists on keeping everything to a dollar and wants people to know the inventory is not made up of closeout items, but rather merchandise from companies that supply items specifically to dollar and discount stores. It’s also mentioned they will have lots of toys. Too bad for me they are in Wausau. You can read the article...