let me say first off that i have never, nor will i ever, box swap and return a toy to a store, even if its the exact same figure in a different paint scheme...that's just not my thing...but i was thinking about something, and wanted opinions, so i present it below: so, the other day i picked up the target exclusive white Leo Prime...now i bought the red and blue one months ago, transformed him a few times, then put him away...but now that i've got the white one, i don't feel i need the other one...so i was thinking of putting him in the white Leo Prime box and dropping him off at a Toys for Tots location...i figured it would be better then trying to sell red and blue prime, but also pulls into the highly unethical concept of putting a different toy in the box...so, what are your opinions?
I believe new, unopened, and unwrapped are part of the donation criteria. A reboxed item fails two of those three.
I don't see what difference it makes. In fact, I have the bigger problem with Toys for Tots only accepting "new" toys. That is incredibly wasteful and they lose out on a gigantic amount of potential donations. I myself would be willing to clear out a ton of stuff if they just let me give it to them, especially knowing they would go directly to children(as opposed to Goodwill and the like).
i've always figured it was new and unwrapped because then they don't have to sort through stuff near as much...can you imagine the hours and man power it would take to sort through tons of donations of used toys? or even attempting to match parts together? i mean, i'd LOVE that job, but not many people would... and also peoples definitions of good condition vary GREATLY... and yeah...that's why i wanted to ask to see what people thought...cuz a small sliver of tape would make it appear to be unsealed, and i'd retwist tie prime back in as well...
Legal issues, obviously. If Toys for Tots gives a kid your discarded Transformer and he slits his face open on it, it's TfT's fault. If that kid opens the TF from the box and gets hurt on it, it's Hasbro's fault (in court, at least). Not to mention the piles of *utter crap* people would throw in and pat themselves on the back for having donated.
I think germs and legal issues are the biggests things at play here. I have no moral/ethical problem with you doing it but I think that you shouldn't. Kinda weird on the germs issues as a lot of TF ultras and leaders have the huge hole in them and a lot of baby toys aren't sealed per se but it is what it is.
Germs aren't that big of a deal for most toys as there plenty of products on the market that kills the germs on the toys with out damaging it. The exception would be stuffed animals and soft bodied dolls as they are more difficult to ensure the germs are completely destroyed because they can leech into the interior of the toy and escape the common methods of removal. Its more about the condition of the toy. Which is why they go new stuff only to avoid the whole issue of what appears to safe to one person might not to another and it also avoids the need to set up a standard for what is to be considered safe.
Whoo... Tough call. I would say that as long as everything is there, and you do a good job of making it look brand new, it isn't a dick move. However anything less than that and you're drifting into penile territory. They want new sealed toy so that it is something currentish that a kid is going to like, and so that any faulty toys get the blame foisted back to the manufacturer. On top of that it keeps boxes of ratty 80s toys being thrown at the charity bogging them down with stuff they will likely have to pitch.
I figured part of the reason TfT only wants new stuff is so that the recipient children can have the experience of getting a brand new toy for Christmas, something that may otherwise be out of reach if they're truly needy, rather than a secondhand item. They can get secondhand stuff from Goodwill or a number of other sources. Toys for Tots (and other, similar, organizations) provide an opportunity at this time of year for a child to receive something new and current, something that's out on the shelves now that they might really like but is out of their reach economically. Anyways, back to the point of the thread: New, sealed, unwrapped only for Toys for Tots. It's cool that you want to donate something to help a needy child but it's a used/secondhand/opened item. There are plenty of organizations that will happily accept such items (all throughout the year) and see that they get to a good home, but it's not the purpose of Toys for Tots. And consider what a kid getting the item would think. Maybe they wouldn't notice the differences in colours when they looked at the back of the box, maybe they wouldn't care or they would just chalk it up to "product colours may vary". But what if they (or their parents) do notice it or do know enough about TFs to catch something like that? How are they going to feel that someone decided to give them a secondhand item? Or does it not matter and they should just be grateful they got anything at all?
I myself would keep both and donate a new toy anyways. This year I went overboard and donated 6 toys. 1 of them a Zhu Zhuu pet and another a ice cream truck twins. Believe me, it's a great feeling knowing that you are making a child happy when they have nothing much to smile about.
I have to agree with AMS. The charity is for NEW toys. However, at least your heart is in the right place buddy
I would try donating it to a local church or something in which their criteria doesn't have to have brand new toys. That way you don't tread on the "new, not used" policy. It is kind of a shame when a heart felt gift cannot be given because of legalities and such.
Like I said earlier, there are lots of other charities that take used toys. Toys for tots (Toy Mountain in Canada) is great and I try to get stuff every year for them. I think a lot of their workers are volunteers so they don't have time to sift through used stuff to find out if it is broken, complete, and suitable to give to a child. I think it is wrong to switch the toy in the box, even if it is a repaint. The kids who get these toys already have been dealt a shitty deck in life and they really shouldn't have to receive a repackaged toy. I think it is great to give to charity, I just think that they should be given to the proper ones. Every local community has Children's Hospitals, Churches, Activity centers etc. that will take donations. Hell this summer I took a huge box of toys I didn't have room for and gave them to some of the kids who live in my apartment building.
