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Someone got one over on Geoff Beckett!


hellpop

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So, if you follow the Indie Spotlight/Shocker Toys thread over on the Fwoosh, you've heard this story, but I just had to share it. As you may know, the industry's biggest scumbag, Geoff Beckett, is still kicking around, although Shocker Toys is now dead. Geoff claims that he was just an employee at Shocker, just a humble pencil pusher, but now he's struck out on his own and started his own company called GBJR Toys, looking to save all those great Shocker toy lines. Here's the thing about Geoff that's just baffling: he's smart enough to recognize that the Shocker name is dirt, but not smart enough to recognize that his own name is also dirt. Anyway, it's basically the same old shit. He did show up at San Diego (not at his own booth) with some stuff to sell. Among them was an action figure of the Maxx character Mr. Gone. Veteran Shocker Stalkers will remember that Mr. Gone was supposed to be a free incentive for anybody that bought Indie Spotlight wave one. Well, apparently some of them were able to get past all the custom seizures and pirates and sinking ships and nefarious toy reps that have long plagued the IS line to make it into Geoff's hands. And he, of course sent them to the people that had been waiting for them with a profound letter of apology had them for sale for $40 at SDCC.

He also had them for sale at the Betty Page store, offsite from the con in San Diego's Gaslamp District. Well, in wandered a Fwoosher by the handle of Cactus Dan, who happens to be one of the many collectors owed a Mr. Gone. He picked up the figure to look at it, and one of the indifferent shopgirls told him they were $15. So he bought it, and posted about it on Fwoosh (and maybe elsewhere) saying "Not a great figure but now I finally have Maxx and Mr. Gone and can be done with Geoff and his antics."

Which should be the end of the story... but Geoff's pissed off about it! From his Facebook:

Geoff Beckett
Oh to the person who did a bait and switch on pricing for mr. Gone at
the bettie page store and then boasted about it online they have cameras
and your picture has been turned over to sdcc staff. We finally put
these figures out and as a new company we count on everyone's support.
We had to air ship all this product to get it in time for collectors
like yourself. Anyone purposely hurting us after we did what we said we
would do is acting childish.
Friday at 11:12am via mobile · Edited · Like
I can only assume that, by "bait and switch", Geoff is implying that Dan switched the price tags. I just love the idea that Geoff's going to take this security footage from an offsite store to the San Diego Con organizers, and they are supposed to track down this one guy from the hundred thousand that attend the con, and ban him. Good luck with that, Geoff!
Anyway, I just wanted to share that story, because it made me smile. Someone got one over on ol' Geoff Beckett... and even then, he's still out $15 extra dollars.


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Forgive my ignorance - i'm not familiar with Shocker toys. Are they related to Shockinis?

Is there an abridged explanation of Geoff Becks antics? Perhaps a Miry-notes style entry that beings those not in the know, up to speed.

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From what I've read about this Geoff guy, he never came through on much of his promises did he? I hope everyone who bought all the figures gets their "Mr. Gone" figure. After all, he was selling them at the convention which means he could have mailed out what he had, rather than sell them to someone else and digging his hole even deeper.

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Forgive my ignorance - i'm not familiar with Shocker toys. Are they related to Shockinis?

Is there an abridged explanation of Geoff Becks antics? Perhaps a Miry-notes style entry that beings those not in the know, up to speed.

You can always read their wikipedia entry that kind of gives the overall feel of Shocker and Beckett (I find the list of cancelled items quite interesting myself):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shocker_Toys

I think I can sum up the worst part of Shocker by saying that about four years ago they solicited a series and exclusives and then asked for customers to preorder (and pre-pay) for them. I believe they were supposed to debut at SDCC, but they then started giving excuses as to why there were delays (I believe one was that the boat carrying the shipment sank or something and then one time Mr. Beckett blamed an 'evil agent' in Hong Kong for why there weren't figures). Or something like that (it's hard to remember stuff that you know is just made up). Before the next SDCC, someone posted on their own site that they were the one that put together the prototype samples for Shocker and that they were telling their side of things since Shocker hadn't paid them for their work. According to them, the did the sample for Shocker right before the con that they were supposed to be selling them at (so they obviously hadn't been made, even though they had solicited them and taken peoples money for them). Shocker then tried to legally pressure the owner of the domain to shut down the sculptor site. The guy then had Beckett served court papers at his own SDCC panel. Shocker released a few of the figures from that wave eventually, but I'm prety sure the exclusives are in limbo. Last year Shocker was bought by someone and then Beckett started a 'new' company that,as far as I can tell, is trying to release the same products that Shocker was and is still run by Beckett. Obviously, I might be off a little on some of the specifics, but in a nutshell that's the deal with Shocker. I'd say their name is mud in the collecting community, but that would insult mud. Oddly, though, if you read their Facebook pages they have a strong following still and his latest attempt at funding a toy line through something similar to Kickstarter was successful (he actually started a Kickstarter project, but they shut him down; his claim was that it was because of a bunch of malicious Fwoosh members that told Kickstarters lies to get him stopped). If anything, looking at the history of Shocker Toys is fun because you really can't make up the kind of crap they do and get buy with.

As to why I'm disgruntled with them, you can read my experience in this thread:

http://www.minimatemultiverse.com/index.php?showtopic=9705&p=205787

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I've been following Shocker and Geoff for 3 years or so now. I ordered and paid for a Barry Hubris "exclusive" and full Series 2 back in 2010 & 2011....still waiting on those figures to be released (Even though the "full" Series 2 has been shortened down from 8 figures (including variants and "mail Away" Authur) to just 6 figures (No King Zombie Variant or Jack Staff) Also all these normal Tick figures that have been on the market since 2011....haven't seen a single one, but I guess having bought a "full" set I have to wait till all the figures are ready to go before I get mine

I will say that it only took almost a year for me to receive Mucus Tick after paying for him. When I got him his arms were on backwards. I posted it on Shocker's forums and later updated that I was able to fix it myself, however, Shocker Toys still sent me a replacement Mucus Tick even when I didn't ask for one. So that's one very nice thing they did for me............but I'm still waiting on toys I paid for 3 years ago and still seeing some of those figures being sold at other shows rather than being shipped to me

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Ouch Shogi. I'll admit I finally did get a Tick figure (not the Barry one of course), but it came from a member here who knew of my troubles and wanted to thank me for something by sending one to me (thanks lilgambit!). So, for me, it was easier to get Shocker Toys from someone in the Netherlands than it was from the company that makes them.

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You guys have done a pretty good job in summing up Shocker's history, but I don't know if anything can fully explain the full Shocker experience. The thing with Geoff is that he wants to be a big shot. He acts like he's in charge of this big-time toy company, referring to himself as a CEO and all, which is part of why I think he's got such a bad rap. If he'd have just been upfront about being over his head, I think people would have given him some slack. But he's viciously attacked his critics, while continually failing to do the one thing that would shut everybody up: deliver on his promises.

Of course, he's also defrauded a bunch of people. The Tick got made solely because somebody gave him a huge amount of money to make the mucus variant (he now owes that guy thousands of dollars). With the San Diego exclusives, he sold preorders of them at the con, claiming they'd ship in a few months... and some three years later, no one has ever seen them. Jack Staff was pulled from IS wave 2, but only after creator Paul Grist publicly said that Shocker/GBJR didn't have the rights to the figure any more. So Geoff just started selling preorders for the unpainted figure as "make your own superhero".

Unfortunately, Geoff Beckett has found a flaw in the system. Nobody really cares about the action figure market, so even though this guy has defrauded hundreds of consumers, nobody's going to step in to stop him. He still managed to slip into San Diego despite making a mockery of the exclusives system. But nobody really cares.

Anyway... never, NEVER give Geoff Beckett your money.

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  • 1 year later...

I actually saw him at a con about a month ago. I turned a corner and noticed a wicker basket on the side of a booth with a bunch of Shocker Toys in them. I'd never actually seen one on sale before, so I was surprised. I quickly realized that this was the Poisonous Pinups booth, and there he was, the great man himself:

60667_1642315349334073_89086012183361423

If the booth was any indication, he's pretty much given up on toys and has moved on to trying to steal money based on his Suicide Girls knockoff site. Not that he won't still take a preorder.rolleyes.gif

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  • 3 months later...

Yeah he's still going slowly dying out in horror community as well. He burns his bridges like an expert...anyone who is competition is attacking him and hurting him in some way. Yet he hide behind his fake moniker Geoffrey Von Gore. He is the biggest con artist i know no one give him a dime. I know his ex gf and she helped him destroy thousands of peoples preorders so there was no record. Poisonous Pinups is just as bad he takes other peoples work and prints it in a magazine format from staples. If you really want to piss him off call him a failure he once threatened me for saying that. I run in the same con circles as him so if anyone needs 411 on where hell be in order to serve him papers im more than happy to oblige lol

https://facebook.com/geofferyvongore

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  • 3 years later...

I’d love to know who the last post is....you probably know me. I actually created the poisonous pinups business model (which he stole and claims Is his.) Guy is scam trash. Even ducked over the girl from the crow. She went on a rampage about him. Even roped an Ex WWE diva into the fold now lol. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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