G1 season 1-2 Toys discontinued

Discussion in 'Transformers Toy Discussion' started by Wheeljack30, Aug 20, 2011.

  1. Wheeljack30

    Wheeljack30 Banned

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    When were the G1 season 1-2 toys discontinued and removed from the shelves? was it at some point during the end of season 2 or after when season 2 ended? cause I remember when I went to Greece in late July, I went to a toy store in Athens and I wanted to get Ironhide and Prowl, and the sales man goes to me that they were already discontinued.

    Thanks
     
  2. Transfotaku

    Transfotaku Transformer Otaku

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    The 1984 toys were sold in 1984.

    The 1985 toys were sold in 1985.

    You can hopefully extrapolate from there that the 1986 toys were sold in 1986 and so forth.

    European distribution is....different. You're talking about lots and lots of different nations, not a few provinces and states of one country. Greece may have only had so many of each wave and that was it.
     
  3. Murasame

    Murasame 村雨

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    In Europe they were still on the shelves between 1987 and 1991, because that's when I bought them and saw them on the shelves. It always made me wonder, why the copyright was older than the year we actually had and I was wondering if the toys were somewhere else out much earlier. Basically the old G1 toys were available at the same time as Headmasters, Targetmasters, Triplechangers, Micromasters and Pretenders were. Except for the real G1 Optimus Prime, there was only at some point Powermaster Optimus Prime available. The Dinobots for example came out in 1990, that's when I bought Grimlock.
     
  4. TrueNomadSkies

    TrueNomadSkies Well-Known Member

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    Well for what it's worth, I remember my Grandma being able to find the G2 stuff at the same time that I could in Canada, often in a much more abundant supply than Saskatoon offered.

    However again, that could easily have had more to do with Athens being a larger region by close comparison than Saskatoon was to lets say Edmonton, rather than a nation wide thing. I do remember some cool ones like Scorch & the other Turbomaster being available just in Europe, though.
     
  5. Releaser...

    Releaser... Brilliant Strategist

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    As a local, as far as i know and had been told, we got only a few compared to the complete toy line that was released in the US. For example, Soundwave never came here.
    Around 1990, some of the G1 toys were available as a classic version, the one with the golden box. I don't know what happened before 1985 here though.
    We did get a lot of EU exclusive stuff though. I still have my G1 Overlord which i had bought from a local store when i was about what, six?
     
  6. Backpack

    Backpack G1 forever.

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    That's not true at all. The entire '84 line was sold along side the '85 line. I think there was even some '84 figures sold in the '86 line as well.

    OP- for sure there were no '84 figures on the shelves by '87
     
  7. Nevermore

    Nevermore It's self-perpetuating a parahumanoidarianised!

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    Facts:

    The 1984 toys were continued into the 1985 assortments. Sunstreaker, Wheeljack, Trailbreaker etc. shipped alongside Tracks, Skids and Red Alert, and so on.

    The difference is that the 1985 toys all came with rubsigns, so you have 1984 toys without rubsigns and their 1985 versions with rubsigns.

    By 1986, some 1985 toys were still continued, but most 1986 toys no longer shipped. Bumblebee and Starscream were the big exceptions, Frenzy (originally sold in a two-pack with Laserbeak) was available in a two-pack with Ratbat, there were special "movie" editions of Optimus Prime and Megatron (I think the main difference was a "movie edition" seal or somesuch), some toys like Mirage or Thundercracker were still available via mail order, and there was the "Cookie Crisp" edition of Jazz.

    The Hartmans once had that case assortment list on their ooooold website that's long gone which explains it in detail.


    Regarding what Murasame said about Europe, that's based on flawed memory and a combination of several factors.

    In Mainland Europe, the Transformers toyline was launched in 1985, originally distributed via Milton Bradley's European divisions. Mijo goes into detail here:
    20th Century Toy Collector

    However, what Murasame might in fact remember are the Mexican G1 toys that were available in Europe around 1989. Those were old unsold stock of toys originally produced by Plasticos IGA for the Mexican market, which were imported to Europe without Hasbro's involvement, essentially competing with Hasbro's official European release at that time.

    And then there were the Hasbro "Classic" reissues of older toys released in Europe in 1990 and 1991, also known as the "gold box" reissues among some fans.

    So for Europe, there were
    a) original "MB" G1 releases in 1985, followed by "Hasbro" releases (including some of the same toys) in 1986
    b) gray imports of Mexican G1 toys around 1989
    c) Hasbro "Classic" reissues in 1990/91
     
  8. Murasame

    Murasame 村雨

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    Interesting, than every store, even the wholesale had mexican imports. I have only seen few of those "gold box" toys in 1991.
     
  9. Toyzaremine

    Toyzaremine Well-Known Member

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    Absolutely incorrect.
    Back in the days of G1, toys in general had a much larger shelf life you would seldom see today. All 1984 toys were selling throughout 1985 with rubsigns, 1985 series 2 items were carried over into 1986.
    I remember seeing many 1984 toys on clearance ie-Megatron, Ironhide as late as Christmas season '86. Most 1986 toys were carried over into 1987.
    I think by about 1987, to make room for series 4, all 84 and most- if not all '85toys were removed.
     
  10. GogDog

    GogDog Logic's wayward son Veteran

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    It must suck to take the time to be offensively condescending to someone, and then end up being completely wrong. :lol 
     
  11. Murasame

    Murasame 村雨

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    I wish it was still like this today. When I once got to a store and looked for Transformers, I was very disappointed, how few they had.
     
  12. Wheeljack30

    Wheeljack30 Banned

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    So basically there were still 1984-1985 toys on the shelves when TF:TM came out? if they were still on the shelves why did they killed them off in the Movie then?
     
  13. sto_vo_kor_2000

    sto_vo_kor_2000 Banned

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    they may have been on shelf's in some markets, but they were back stock.

    they werent being produced [most of them anyway], and again, the show was trying to sell the new toys being produced.
     
  14. Jazz342

    Jazz342 Well-Known Member

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    I think I remember seeing shockwave on the same shelf as pm op. But it was a long time ago, so I could be wrong.
     
  15. Nevermore

    Nevermore It's self-perpetuating a parahumanoidarianised!

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    They were supposed to be phased out, instead of instantly making them disappear from toy stores.

    Also, because they wanted to promote new toys instead.

    Well, I could easily find Scout Windcharger, the RTS Legends, Deluxe Wreck Gar etc. at Real stores. Supposedly they're a lot harder to find in the US...
     
  16. shockwave2005

    shockwave2005 Well-Known Member

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    :lol 
     
  17. Skywarp SCS

    Skywarp SCS AKA "Pretender Skywarp"

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  18. Nevermore

    Nevermore It's self-perpetuating a parahumanoidarianised!

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    List should still be incomplete, been a while since I added to it...
     
  19. Murasame

    Murasame 村雨

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  20. SSR

    SSR Well-Known Member

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    how long until the "I had a blue bluestreak when I was a kid and bought it from Kmart" talk starts up?