You know the one. It’s been hanging on the peg since spring, it’s on its third clearance sticker, and no collector alive is buying it. Hand it to a kid on Christmas morning, though, and it’s the coolest thing in the world.

That’s the whole idea behind Elf on a Shelfwarmer, Radio Free Cybertron’s holiday toy drive. This is the 15th year we’ve done it. It started in 2012 as Operation Beehive, when the pegs were clogged with unsold Transformers Prime Bumblebees and Rob Springer figured kids would want them more than the stores did. He was right.

How to give

Buy a shelfwarmer and drop it off. Clearance aisles are your friend. Ollie’s, Five Below, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Ross, and the clearance endcaps at Walmart and Target are all good hunting, and online clearance counts too. The store doesn’t need a drop box. Take your find to any Toys for Tots box. Retailers, banks, gyms, offices and restaurants host them, and the list changes every year, so find your local chapter at toysfortots.org to see where yours are. Boxes show up in force in November.

Donate a sealed piece from your collection. We all have one. You bought it, you never opened it, and you’re never going to. It costs you nothing and frees up a shelf.

No box nearby? Use the wishlist. Order something from our Amazon wishlist and it ships straight to me. I’ll drop it off locally and give you a shout-out on the show. And no, RFC doesn’t make a dime off it. No referral fees, nothing.

It doesn’t have to be Transformers. Any new toy counts. It doesn’t have to be Toys for Tots, either. They get the spotlight because they’re the biggest, but a toy in your office, church or local toy drive counts just as much.

Snap it and share it

Take a picture of your donation (in the cart, in the box, going into the bin) and post it with #elfonashelfwarmer. We search the hashtag, reshare what we find, and shout you out. Every photo is a nudge for somebody else to go hunting.

A few rules from Toys for Tots

• Toys need to be new and unwrapped. Sealed collection pieces are fine.
• No realistic-looking weapons and no gifts with food. Those get pulled and never reach a kid, so the vintage Megatron with the very convincing gun mode stays in your collection.
• Most chapters serve kids up to 12, some older. Teens are the hardest kids to shop for, which is exactly where collector figures and kits shine.

The Toys for Tots FAQ covers the rest.

When

Start hunting now. Boxes hit most drop-off spots in November. The final round is Wednesday, December 9, so if you’re ordering from the wishlist, give it time to get here before my last drop-off.

Everything else lives on the Elf on a Shelfwarmer page.