hellpop Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 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 BeckettOh to the person who did a bait and switch on pricing for mr. Gone atthe bettie page store and then boasted about it online they have camerasand your picture has been turned over to sdcc staff. We finally putthese 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 collectorslike yourself. Anyone purposely hurting us after we did what we said wewould 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groundhog7s Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 I suppose when it comes to GB, I've decided I'm going to try and start using the old advice of 'If you have nothing nice to say, then don't say anything at all'. Having now said that, my opinion of Mr. Beckett and his practices is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nessex Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sky_dive Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groundhog7s Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 Here's a little more:http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/02/06/paul-grist-geoff-beckett-and-shocker-toys/ I think it's amazing that GB is still even trying to stay in the game. Even more amazing that people still work with him and then other people give him money. He must be the Wolverine of toy fraud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heroic Slacker Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 He got served legal papers a few SDCCs back http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/07/22/court-papers-served-on-shocker-toys-at-their-own-san-diego-comic-con-panel/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shogi Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groundhog7s Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youbastards Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 So, for me, it was easier to get Shocker Toys from someone in the Netherlands than it was from the company that makes them. ouch! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellpop Posted July 25, 2013 Author Share Posted July 25, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttheadsmate Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 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. http://www.minimatemultiverse.com/index.php?showtopic=3662&&page=3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metorman76 Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 He also goes by the name geoffrey von gore and had two companies poisonous pin ups and poisonous punks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trekker 42 Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 He's still alive? I thought he'd been buried under a mountain of bullshit by now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellpop Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 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: 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metorman76 Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthonyHatred Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellpop Posted April 16, 2019 Author Share Posted April 16, 2019 Geoff Beckett...now there's a name I haven't heard in awhile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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