President Bush's invocation of the Taft-Hartley Act has temporarily ended the lockout that shut down West Coast ports (see 'Dock Dispute'), but the effects of the work stoppage continue.  With ships filling West Coast harbors, containers piled high on docks, and the pace of work only at about 80% of normal, the impact is rippling through the economy -- and some are hitting close to home.  Diamond Comic Distributors reports that it has not received a shipment from Asia in three weeks -- and suppliers and shippers in Hong Kong are telling Diamond that there is a severe shortage of containers in Asia because of the logjam at U.S. ports.  And given that the invocation of the Taft-Hartley Act in the past has seldom prevented the escalation of labor disputes after the cooling-off period ends, it is probably optimistic to assume that things will get back to normal any time soon. 

The extent of the effects of the strike on pop culture retailers is difficult to judge at this point, but it appears that the best possible outcome would be a 3-4 week delay between when products manufactured in Asia were supposed to arrive and when they actually do.  With toys, models, and statues almost universally manufactured in China, the holiday selling window for many items could be quite short or almost non-existent.