I wanted to talk about these guys last Christmas, but ha ha ha ha ha funny story

no not really

So I really like Community, right?  And I really like toys?  So hell yeah I'm gonna preorder some Community figurines from the NBC/Universal online store.  I preordered these guys in October, with an announced ship date of November/early Decemberish.  It's been a while.  But, you know, before Christmas.  I felt pretty secure in this order!  NBC/Universal is a large company that pays people whose entire job is to mail stuff.  It's like my job minus the actual cartooning and website management and people interaction and convention going.  Just putting stuff in boxes with shipping labels!

Mid December hits, and I'm wondering, okay, where are my preordered figurines.  I check the website.  Oh ho.  These figurines came in two sets.  Well, one set was canceled!  Apparently!  Well, just the order was canceled.  The product still existed on the website and was available for ordering, listed as "in stock."  The other of the two sets was, um, in limbo?  I forget their exact term for "we're thinking of mailing it soon."  EDIT: Oh, right.  "Processing."  Okay.  Well.  That's weird.  I re-order the canceled one and ask about the in-limbo one.  The in-limbo one ships.

The re-ordered set does not.

It goes into the same limbo as the other set.

Christmas passes.

I send an email perhaps once a week, asking if the other set will please ship.  Every time they tell me they will totally tell the shipping people to ship me my stuff.  The second set remains in "processing" status, which is infuriating.

January passes.

So I'm pretty angry by now!  These were supposed to be for Christmas!  Anyway, I throw a fit on Twitter, and my pal Rob who physically works at 30 Rockefeller goes downstairs, buys the three guys I'm missing from the NBC/Universal store, and mails them to me himself.  Because he's awesome.

Of course, they arrive the same day that the online store's set arrived.  Grargh.  It is February.

Anyway, the figurines are all right.  I like them.  I'm never ever ever using the online NBC/Universal store ever again.   Screw those guys.

Rob is fantastic.

Merry Christmas.