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domu
07-22-2009, 07:05 PM
Was surprised to see in this week's column that Steven Grant will be signing at the Shocker Toys booth. Here's a warning to Mr. Grant about who he will be associating with there.

Geoff Beckett/ Shocker Toys have a troubling history here at CBR.

Geoff's adventures at CBR started in the YABS Olney thread:
Rick Olney--Fibber or Mega-Giganta-Fibber? - Page 3190 - Comic Book Resources Forums (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?p=7948048#post7948048)
Discussion of Shocker Toys was quickly met with insults and phony legal threats from Geoff. To keep the Olney thread on topic, the conversation migrated over to the LITG forum.

The Shocker Toys thread became the longest and most viewed thread ever on the Lying in the Gutters forum. Geoff again threatened Jonah Weiland by email and on the phone to get the thread removed because he was upset with the content.

The LITG thread was closed.

Here is the last post from the LITG thread, made by Weiland
Gentlemen,

I'm going to shut down this thread. After repeated calls and e-mails and threats from Geoff about this thread, of which I don't believe any of it is actionable, I have decided to shut this thread down. This does not mean I am supporting Shocker Toys work in any way, just that I don't want to deal with any further calls of the level of which I received yesterday. This would be the second call I've received from him and while the first last year was unprofessional, his call on Tuesday was completely out of bounds. His call has been logged and his actions noted with my attorney.

Shocker Toys is no longer welcome on the CBR Forums and their accounts will be banned. If any users who are familiar with their account names could get in touch with me via PM, I'll add them to the list.

In 12 - 24 hours I will soft delete this thread -- that means that while the posts will not be publicly readable, I'll still have access to them should there be that need.

I do this if only to avoid further interaction with Shocker or its employees. While I will not go into details, the call yesterday was the last straw and once again I will reiterate that there is no belief on my or my lawyer's part that any legal action can take place as a result of this thread.

Geoff was described as having a "psychotic break" during the final phone call:
Comic Book Resources Forums - View Single Post - Rick Olney--Fibber or Mega-Giganta-Fibber? (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=8346989&postcount=48469)

The conversation, however, was allowed to continue back in the Olney thread:
http://forums.comicbookresources.com...6451&page=3230

The thread on YABS peaked when a scam perpetrated by Geoff to generate orders from comic shops was uncovered when LCS owners around the country announced receiving identical email requests for products from a person posing as a local customer.

Diamond dropped Shocker Toys soon after, though it's not certain if it was because of the scam or because Shocker simply never delivered any product despite soliciting it, in some cases, years prior.

Since, Geoff finally released a bit of product, so most of the heat has died down surrounding him. Though, it's worth noting that he apparently still hasn't paid a number of people who did work for him, or refunded pre-orders on product that was never made (and apparently never will be, like a line of GWAR figures), or apologized to the number of professionals he has slurred publicly over the years, including Gail Simone and Robert Kirkman.

As seen in the YABS link, Geoff has long tried to rewrite history to make himself look better. He often uses sock and meat puppets on sites such as Wikipedia to try to control the message.

Here is Geoff's latest attempt at rewriting history. On the Shocker forum, a poster asks if an online store, Youbuynow.com, should be getting their order of Indie Spotlight toys anytime soon, so that the store can fill the poster's long standing pre-order.

This is the reply:
Re: IS1 Round 2 shipping?
by ForumAdmin » Mon Jul 20, 2009 11:28 pm

We received no PO from YBN. As with all the LCS and Stores tricked into thinking Diamond will send them any products from Shocker Toys please warn them and tell them there is no way they can get any products from Diamond for Shocker Toys. The only way they can get Shocker Toys products is through Haven Distributors, Shocker Toys Direct, Distributoys or Big Bad Toy Store. Diamond has taken the route of not telling merchants that they will not be receiving Indie Spotlight as some form of joke which we do not find very funny and neither should the Indie Spotlight customers.

So now, Geoff is pretending that Diamond tricked LCS into ordering Shocker product from them (but to what end?). Geoff is trying to pass himself off as the victim of his own attempted scam from last year.

Steven Grant
07-28-2009, 12:17 AM
Was surprised to see in this week's column that Steven Grant will be signing at the Shocker Toys booth. Here's a warning to Mr. Grant about who he will be associating with there.

Yawn.

I didn't associate with anyone there except Jai Nitz and the Captain Action guys. They're the ones with the Shocker deal, not me.

- Grant

domu
07-28-2009, 03:40 AM
Yawn.

I didn't associate with anyone there except Jai Nitz and the Captain Action guys. They're the ones with the Shocker deal, not me.

- Grant

Apologies for unnecessarily trying to be helpful by pointing out the possibility of hooking up with a crooked company. You're an old pro; I should have known that you wouldn't be prone to being easily duped by a second rate scam artist. Still, comforting to hear that you were never in any way entangled with Shocker Toys.

Steven Grant
07-28-2009, 01:05 PM
Apologies for unnecessarily trying to be helpful by pointing out the possibility of hooking up with a crooked company. You're an old pro; I should have known that you wouldn't be prone to being easily duped by a second rate scam artist. Still, comforting to hear that you were never in any way entangled with Shocker Toys.

No, my connection is strictly collateral. But I have to say I've had quite pleasant and profitable dealings with companies others have warned me were "crooked" "scam artists." I have no reason to disbelieve your assessment of Shocker Toys, but others who were vilified online as corrupt and dishonest monsters, given a specific set of circumstances, turned out to be genial and hard-working. Especially when trying to rebuild their reputations. We all have our bouts of insanity now and then, and unfortunately we all tend toward standing our ground even when we know we're wrong and standing our ground isn't in our best interests. Especially where businesses are concerned. The question in all cases should be whether the behavior is aberrant or habitual.

But, y'know, if I never dealt with crooked scam artists or corrupt, dishonest monsters I'd never get anything published...

- Grant

Charles RB
07-28-2009, 01:35 PM
I have no reason to believe your assessment of Shocker Toys

I was around for a lot of what he's talking about, so I can vouch for that. Certainly, Jonah Weiland did say he got repeated phone calls from Shocker Toys threatening legal action.

domu
07-28-2009, 02:42 PM
I was around for a lot of what he's talking about, so I can vouch for that. Certainly, Jonah Weiland did say he got repeated phone calls from Shocker Toys threatening legal action.

Thanks for that, Charles.

Though I posted my word of caution out of a genuine concern to not see Mr. Grant harmed in any way, it is clear that it was completely unnecessary.

Steven Grant
07-28-2009, 02:43 PM
I was around for a lot of what he's talking about, so I can vouch for that. Certainly, Jonah Weiland did say he got repeated phone calls from Shocker Toys threatening legal action.

Sorry, a typo on my part, as I was going over various ways to say when I meant to say. Concluding, I guess, with what I didn't mean to say. The line should have read:

I have no reason to disbelieve your assessment of Shocker Toys.

Which probably makes what followed make a bit more sense.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I'll go edit it now.

- Grant