I'm pretty sure I bought my Hook from Beaties earlier than the 90's but I've sold him since so can't look for dates.

 

I know numerous toy shops had Fort Max as competition prizes. My local it was a colouring competition.

I have no evidence of this but I did wonder if certain figures, such as Omega Supreme, Shockwave, deluxe insecticons, couldn't be released because of existing contracts with companies like Grandstand or because of the nature of the original contracts between Hasbro and Toybox etc.

Edit: Sixshot was one of the other chinese reissues availalbe in the UK (for the first time) in the mid 90's. Oh how I kick myself about that. I did get the Soundwave for £9.99 so it wasn't all bad.

 

I got Sixshot and Overlord here. I did see Fort Max in Hamleys but the staff were nobs and tried to tell me it was a display piece made especially for them and not for sale. Picked one up from a gift shop here a few years later for £40 so I can't really complain.
I grabbed the Constructicons from Woolworths somewhen during 1990 (or maybe 1991). I remember scraping together my meagre wages one week and buying the whole team in one go.
I've got one of those Monstructor parts but I can't remember if it was a mailaway or something as the tech specs were printed on the instruction sheet.

 

Bearing in mind the age old 1 dollar = 1 gbp 'exchange rate' i guess it was 90 - 100 GBP... although Hamley's quite likely padded that price.

US Catalogs were quite commonly packed with TFs sold in the UK in 1985. I don't know for sure if Swoop appeared in any catalogs printed specifically for the UK... but im thinking probably not.

Ravage/Rumble, Frenzy/Laserbeak were pretty scarce. I think i saw them oh.. Once.


Incidentally, i used to collect sealed MASK toys.... and apaprently Kenner's exchange rate wasn't as lopsided during the 80s as Hasbro's. Hmmm...

 

i don't undertand why people say we didnt get blaster, because he was one of my childhood toys, i got him from a trip to blackpool

still got him to this day

 

Perhaps he was... but if he was I never saw him for sale at Argos, Wollies or at our local toy store. I never saw him featured in any of the catalogues either. Blaster was one of my favourite characters from the comic, and if I had seen him for sale I'd have been all over him like flys around cow muck!!

Looking forward to the SDCC reissue - got my pre-orders in, lol  

Probably the kind of figure you'd see at TRU, but wee didn't get one near us until about '88.

 

Blaster was NOT officially available from Hasbro UK. Fact. Check the product catalogues and moaning TF UK letters at the time. However, thats not calling whoever brought him from Blackpool a liar - many shops didn't always source via Hasbro UK, just like now.