Toys in 40k, Where Do You Stand?

The Next Daemons Army You Will Play Against?

TJ here to talk about something that until lately I have only ever seen on such a small scale I wouldn't even mention it, but then I saw something at an FLGS while out traveling (so maybe delete the L from that acronym) that raised the Black Rage inside me:
I saw a Chaos Daemons flying circus list (bunch of flying monstrous creatures) that were all Skylander Giants toys. No wings, which the player said he didn't need because he doesn't buy wings in the codex, he buys Daenomic Flight. He simply Blue Tac'd the models to the bases (so he could still use them as Skylander for his Wii games). The rest of his models were some GW daemons and also some really cheap Reaper familiar models ect. I was friendly and asked what he played and he said: Daemons and that he also wants to run Tyranids and is looking for cheap Gaunts because he thinks his Skylanders can fill in for his MCs.

Look I get it, the hobby is expensive and in a pick-up game scenario, if the opponent doesn't mind playing against it, anything goes. Also if you don't like his toys, you don't have to play against him, so he isn't hurting anybody ... but then he said he had been doing really well in the last few tournaments with them.

That's where the bad taste got in my mouth and I politely ended the conversation with a "Maybe I'll see you around."

The fact that he brought it to tournaments means that the store condones not making that money from him, which he doesn't plan to change any time soon. He doesn't care that other people did "pay to play" or painted their stuff well. He just wanted to bring his FMC circus and win with it (which is what you are doing when you bring a top tier list like that, you play to win). All of that together, in my opinion is disrespectful to the store, the hobby, the players, the opponents and anything I can think of that I didn't already mention.

This brings me to my opinion on toys in the game (toys, as opposed to models):

First off, let it be known that I am not 100% against toys being used in 40k. I am working on bashing a Spawn toy I found into a conversion I will call the Hell Grinder.

With that being said, I am making an effort to make it fit the setting of 40k and also fit the theme of my army.

I will also paint toys like this one to also fit my theme and again, add effort to the inclusion of this into my hobby. The idea isn't to make something easy, the intent is to make something cool.

So my question for you is:

Where do you stand on people using toy store plastic toys on the table and where do you draw the line?

For me, I say, if you can't afford it, but still want to play 40k, play pick-up games with your friends and people who agree to play you and you will be fine. Eventually you should work to own the proper models. Including toys for the long terms should follow the Rule of Cool, like the model above, and be a part of a conversion rather than a long term, cheap, one-off deal where you just want a cheap daemon prince you don't want to paint or model.

I spend a lot of time, making and painting really great models and I understand that not everybody does that on the same level and not everyone can afford new models, but I don't want to see a pre-painted toy in a tourney and I will grill an organizer about it. There should be a level of professionalism in a competition and that is where I draw the line.

I won't play against those armies either because I get little to no play time and want to spend it against other cool armies (hell even bare plastic is better than straight toys on bases). I don't think that is unreasonable.

That's just my opinion though. What is your opinion? Where do you stand on toy store pre-painted toys on the table-top?