Ok, I was born in '91 so I didn't get to experience buying G1 Transformer toys when they were still on the market. And I'm pretty sure they didn't have Target and Toys r us at the time.

So where did you buy your G1 figures?

 

We had no Toys'r'Us. I got mine from Karstadt in Bielefeld, Hertie in Gütersloh, Witthoff Spiel & Hobby in Gütersloh and Friedhoff SB-Zentralmarkt in Paderborn and a store in Brackwede, but I forgot it's name and it doesn't exist anymore. And some from random stores when I was on vacation.  

 

Yes, Toys R Us was around back then, and so was Target. So was KB Toys. Once TF's blew up in the US, most department stores and drug stores carried them - JC Penney, Sears, Best, Service Merchandise, CVS, Woolworths, Rite-Aid, etc. Even grocery stores carried them from time to time. I bought Wheeljack at an Albertson's  

 

In some places they did have TRUs. I got most of mine from little independent toy shops in the UK. At least, that's where I remember my parents and grandparents taking me to when I was a kid. A lot of the shops I got mine at aren't around any more, or they are under a different name ie, Beatties, Woolworths, John Menzies...

 

Mostly Toymaster. Occasionally the odd dept store that has either folded or no longer has a toy dept.

 

I remember here in Canada getting my toys at Kmart, and Wolco. We also had Zellers and The Bay. I remember getting toys at Shoppers Drugmart and Jean-Couteu Pharmacy (i got slag and Silverbolt at a drug store, i remember for sure) I also remember my Brother getting a Defensor gift set from the Dominion Grocery Store.

I remember getting Legos and games and Puzzles and some Tf's and dolls at Leasure World. They were almost an official Lego store back then. more lego than most bog box stores.

 

Well, you're wrong about that. Anyone from the 80s is familiar with the "I'm a Toys R Us Kid" commercials.

 

EBay
Conventions (best place to do it)
People from here and Cybertron.ca

I should read the thread before I post lol

I use to buy them at Towers and Consumers Distributing. When I became a collector with BW it was TRU.

 

The only thing that comes to mind is kmart and the occasional flea market. I had a lot of gifts when i was a kid. Sadly i do not have any of those transformers but i have replaced them  .

 

I know my brother got ultra magnus from sears. I remember getting Stranglehold from Toyworld. That was an awesome day!

 

my first 2 transformers were purchased from bradlees in 1984 jazz and prowl,then later child world,ames,woolworth...,service merchandise,and even toy works back in the day..i remember walking into Caldor and buying grimlock and sludge for my birthday from my parents...wow was that ever cool.

 

I don't wanna grow up,
I'm a Toys Я Us kid.
There's a million toys at Toys Я Us
That I can play with.

From bikes to trikes to video games
It's the biggest toy store there is!
I don't wanna growup, cuz, baby, if I did,
I couldn't be a Toys Я Us kid!

 

Couldn't afford much back then besides minicars, but I can remember drooling over huge stocks of Transformers at Ames. A few years later we got a Hills about a 1/2 hour drive away from us. Both of them were just packed with stuff.....I wish I had pictures..

 

Well I wouldn't know, I wasn't alive yet.

 

Those were happier times

 

Don't know about you guys, but all we got was bloody Geoffrey the Giraffe!

 

holy cow, consumers distributing! I remember getting GI Joes there when I was a kid- I always went looking for the guys with the biggest guns and they were always sold out at department stores so I loved that you could just walk into consumers, point at which guy you wanted in their catalogue and a few minutes later they would come back with the toy you wanted. It was fantastic.

I also had a place called Toy City in my town when I was a kid. It was literally the biggest toy store I can ever remember being in. Hell, the building is still standing today but no one keeps their lease for very long as the building is sooo huge.

 

When I was a kid:

Alpha-Beta
KB Toys
Kmart
Sears
Woolsworth

5 years after I sold my entire collection:

eBay

 

We didn't have KB's until '87, Toys R Us till '88, Target till '89 or Walmart till '95 so I got my TFs out of Sears Catalogues, a local big warehouse place called Great Western, and Fred Meyers. That Great Western was quite a sight to behold in the 80's, an entire wall was devoted to toys and it the selection of He-Man, Transformers and GI Joe was massive. Of course I was a little kid so it might not have been as big as I remember  

 

I have no idea where my childhood ones were bought. Starscream was my first on about my 7th or 8th birthday. But around 1995 I bought a large portion of my current collection from Digital Toys. This was before most of the online stuff and I believe they were on AOL at the time. It was most of the 1984 and about half of the 1985 ones.