Turning movies into two-hour commercials for their stupid toys is more than enough for me to hate Hasbro, but apparently they’ve also been siccing their lawyers on sites that give them free advertising. Specifically, Martyn Yang, an Australian who runs a site dedicated to nerf guns and super soakers (both owned by Hasbro), a while back had run a review for a product that hadn’t been released yet (which he says he got on TaoBao, a Chinese version of Ebay).

Other sites have confirmed that the product was freely available online, but Hasbro was so convinced that Yang knew where to find the leak and obsessed with plugging it (sexy wordplay alert!) that they sent him an email in the guise of offering him free Hasbro products to use for a giveaway on his site. Yang now thinks the email was just a trick to get him to reveal his address, and a few days later, he received a letter from Hasbro’s lawyers (do lawyers not use email?) demanding the “name, address, email and IP address” of the person from whom he obtained his leaked products. Yang directed Hasbro’s representatives to Taobao and eBay, which apparently wasn’t enough.

Thank you for your email. Sorry to have spoiled your fun, but Hasbro has real concerns about your ability to access NERF products before they are released to the market. We refer in particular to your reviews of the “Vortex Nitron” and “Rayven” models in June and October 2011. Hasbro needs to know from whom you obtained the samples that you used for these reviews. You’ll appreciate how important it is for Hasbro to maintain the integrity of its supply process. I hope that you’ll reconsider and be prepared to discuss these issues with me. As for your question about the request for your address, this had nothing to do with me. I can only assume that Hasbro really does want to send you some stuff. Hasbro actually admires what you are doing with your blogsite and has no wish to shut you down. But you must understand that Hasbro has got to find out where these samples came from. I look forward to talking to you. Regards,

Robert Arnold

Yang says he ignored the follow-up email from Hasbro’s lawyer Arnold, until three weeks later, when he came back to his apartment to find a Hasbro goon squad of sorts lurking in his apartment complex asking his neighbors questions about him.

Yang was told by his neighbours that some creepy people [ethnic types, probably] were hanging around his apartment. He confronted them, one of whom called herself “Christine”. They wanted to tape the conversation. Yang says he was ”so taken aback/shocked by the ambushing technique that I talked to them.” “My neighbours were freaked out by the sight of the Baker & McKenzie [Hasbro’s law firm] ‘representatives’ lurking around our apartment building on a Sunday afternoon. Apparently they’d been hanging around all day waiting for me! I’ve asked around and been told that the people were probably private investigators engaged by Bakers and not Baker & McKenzie themselves.”

At which point Yang wrote back to Hasbro’s lawyer. Here’s an excerpt: