I demand somebody PHOTOSHOP an Earth shattering fake photo
of a fully stocked G1 transformers toy aisle from the 1980's!

Now!

Pretty please?

 

I think Photoshop might be the only way to get photos for this photo thread. There's only been like two or three and we're fifteen pages deep over here.

 

This sure does bring the memories back. I grew up in a town of about 3000 in Nebraska. We had a Ben Franklin, nothing like TRU or anything like that, but they had it all. Lets see 84 I would have been 9. Transformers, GI JOE, MASK, HE-MAN, all that 80s goodness. I look at toy aisles now and they suck, Backumand or whatever this craps called, fighting hamsters. What have toys themselves come to? Also my WAL MART has even quit selling Joes and Marvel Universe figs. What the HELL??????My son loves Star Wars, GI Joe, and TFs. My wife blames me, but if Im going to spoil him then Im going to spoil him right.

 

kudos to OP for a freaking awesome thread. solid gold.


EDIT....after looking through all 15 pages and only seeing 2 actual pics, I'm astounded. NOBODY took ANY pics in the 80's??? I'm not expecting youtube toy runs, but NO PICS?????

 

I have craploads of home video's from 1985-1989 of me opening probably 200+ transformers on Birthdays and holidays. Its funny people used to tell my dad he was crazy for spending $1800 in 1985 money on a VHS camcorder, he laughed and said, "time will tell". Holy shit if that thing isn't priceless now. I am the only one of my friends I know that has home movies of their childhood. I am Transferring them to DVD now actually. My buddy still has his video of his "Run for Fun" through Toys R Us in 1985 where he won literally a mountain of toys. I will ask him if he can youtube it. There is one part where he and his father reach behind a full shelf of transformers and sweep them into a cart and empty the shelf. He grabs two cobra terrordomes on the way back to switch carts. I still hate him sometimes for his luck.

 

Pics/video or it didn't happen!   This "Run for Fun" thing sounds so awesome it has to be made up!

 

Nope. They are for real! I used to see them advertised on Nickelodeon when I was a kid. I always got really jealous when I saw kids riding away on bikes that were towing carts and carts of toys behind them! Too bad they don't do anything like that anymore!

 

Yeah, then you'd get guys in their 20s and 30s entering the contest for themselves (example: me!). I think anyone here would have a field day, and not just with TF toys. For the video games alone it would be worth the indignity of a man-child going apeshit on a kids' Nickelodean show.

 

The fact that pictures were "finite" in that you had to buy film that usually had 24 pictures at a time probably means a lot of people didn't just snap photos of any old thing. It was the same with home movies in the early days of reels, cassettes, etc, since you had to keep buying more film, you usually saved it for special occasions. I doubt it occurred to a lot of people to take pictures of toy aisles for posterity's sake. However, I wish it did, because those GI Joe aisle pics are awesome, and I'd love to see some more Transformers ones, just to see if it matches up with my memories. I still remember going to Children's Palace in the 80's and thinking the Transformers were stacked to the ceiling!  

 

While not a photo, check this out:

Around the :13 second mark, you'll see some TF stuff.

God, I miss Hills. Best shopping trip ever was when I scored a returned "defective" Metroplex for $5 after Christmas. The sticker on the front of the box said it was missing the missiles, but when I took it home and opened it up, all of them were present. Completely perfect...

My brother got a G.I.Joe Tomahawk that same day, supposedly missing a wheel for $5. Again, at home, we opened it up, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Sigh...good times...good times.

MIKE
engledogg

 

Yeah, Hills pretty much ruled. I spent many, many hours in the local Hills' toy aisles around Christmas time looking at all the crap I wanted to get. When they closed, it was a sad day.

Coincidentally, my brother and I also got "defective" clearence toys from there once. They had two Soundwaves, and they were really cheap (I didn't pay for them, but I know they were cheap because otherwise my mom wouldn't have bought them). Unfortunately, they were both missing Buzzsaw and one was missing the weapons. Still, we each took one of the weapons and were happy as sh!t.

 

..

 

YouTube - Nickelodeon Super Toy Run - 1993

This is the nickelodeon one. My friends was different it was local, they got 5 minutes to run through the store, one cart at a time and one parent went with him. Believe me it is real, and a massive open wound bleeding sore between me and my best friend. He literally brought home a mountain of toys, he filled 7 carts and piled them up in his living room. He had multiples of everything, visionaries, gi joe, transformers, Centurions, game systems, games, three bikes and on and on. I went through everything with him for over an hour and was so happy for him. When I asked what he got for me he said "let me ask my dad". he walked around the mountain of toys, came back and said "my dad said I can't give you anything". I was crushed, hurt, sad, in disbelief. I told his parents this story later in life and his dad slapped him upside his head. I bought him a $600 surround sound for his wedding gift and his wife and mom told me never to buy him shit again until he man'd up and gave me one of those toys from long ago that are rotting in his attic still sealed. I have yet to see anything, he always "forgets". I have bought him tons of reissues, MP figures, and on and on but before I ever give them to him his wife or my wife says "run for fun J, run for fun" and back in my closet it goes. He has lost out on so many kick ass gifts because he cheaped out on me, and still does to this day.

 

Oh man, that was great. What kid didn't want to win the toy run contest in the early 90s?

 

Wicked! I believe I saw Omega Supreme, couldn't make out the other stuff. Definitely saw the U.S.S Flagg!

Never been so happy to be proven wrong. All you can do now is prove me wronger! BTW your "friend" sounds like a real selfish dick. Kudos for being the bigger man through all these years.

 

It's actually kind of understandable. Taking photos back then was as easy as today but developing them? Ugh. What a pain. You'd send in a roll of 24 exposures, pay close to $25 to get them developed and then you'd have a pack of pictures half underexposed, overexposed, photos exposed on top of each other, etc etc. And what a kick in the face to have a double set of prints of all these nasty ones.

I think a lot of people also took pictures only a few times every month or so, so when they'd get pics developed they'd start in Christmas and go into summer vacation.

Of course now we can go in and snap 1000 photos in a store... or two or three and then a sales clerk will come over to tell us we can't take photos in the store.

 

I hounded him for years to just give me one of the Visionaries or Centurians. Supposedly he still has a few of the Centurions and he has them waiting for me. I have seen him twice and he let me down. But its all good, I have a ridiculous Transformers collection now equal to any run for fun.

 

Oh to be genius enough to build a time machine.  

 

wow amazing at how different toys are arranged now a days