I've probably seen at least a half dozen videos of those Pokemon nerds getting into fights. Honestly, even though action figure nerds can be- and are- pretty dang bad, it's the trading card nerds that have been causing the most trouble here recently. My boyfriend used to be big into the Star Wars Topps cards- mostly just for the autographs and sketches (the Star Wars cards themselves used to be the hot ticket problem item, and caused a couple card stores near us to stop carrying them altogether), but he's been slowly driven out of the hobby by all the other collectors. Used to be pretty easy to find and access, but more and more places- if they carry cards at all- keep them behind the customer service desk so nerds can't get at them because of all the Pokemon problems lately. We talked with the manager at our favorite local Target, and they said they had too many people stealing or fighting over them. Grown men who would bolt to the trading card section as soon as the doors opened and get into arguments or fights with one another. Kids would get pushed out of the way for these guys to get at them; they even had a guy threaten an employee one time because some online site said they had them in stock, but they didn't. I feel like that used to be the Funko fans. Every fandom has its extremists, of course, but to the general public, all us nerds are the same, so it makes all of us look bad.
) . Because the alternative is allowing people to continue being wrong and live with the regret of not correcting them. I'll never forget the time when I was younger- maybe 11 or so. Around the time of Revenge of the Sith came out and they had those light up spoons that looked like lightsabers you could get in boxes of cereal. My Grandpa kindly saved me one, and when he surprised me with it, he waved it around and said "Look out, it's Darth Vader!" The only problem was... it was Mace Windu's saber. It was purple. Now, did it matter in the grand scheme of things? Absolutely not. But my stupid young AuDHD mind couldn't get over the fact this man, who had only a passive knowledge of Star Wars anyway, didn't know Mace Windu. Had there ever been a bigger blunder in the history of blunders? It took everything I had not to correct him, but I thanked him, and when he walked away, I rolled my eyes harder than I maybe ever have. Would I have gotten my ass kicked had I corrected him? Most likely. But not telling him has stuck in my craw all these years for whatever God forsaken reason. I still look back on that moment and cringe a little bit- for both his mistake and my behavior.
