Toy Fair 1986
From Transformers Wiki
Toy Fair 1986 was held in New York City, New York from 10 February to 19 February.[1] It's likely that the event was more geared towards retailers than the press. The notion of catering to communities of adult fans and collectors would probably have seemed fanciful at the time, and there certainly was no online fanbase (or for that matter, much of an online anything).
Below are scans from Hasbro's pre-Toy Fair 1986 catalog, which also included pages on My Little Pony, Hasbro Softies, and G.I. Joe. Many of the toys seen in the images are not final. Some don't even appear to be transformable. The reason for this is that the catalog was thrown together quickly to convince rival company Mattel that Hasbro had dropped plans to make Jem, a would-be competitor for Mattel's Barbie. And so to combat corporate espionage, Hasbro produced a very limited number of pre-Toy Fair catalogs, sans Jem, with what toy samples they had available at the time.[2]
Contents |
Gallery
Differences
Page 1 (Minibots)
- Hubcap and Tailgate have switched color schemes.
- "Hub Cap" here is actually just a white Cliffjumper with a red face. Note the head and spoiler.
- Pipes has a slightly different face.
- Wheelie has different color highlights.
- Outback's face is red rather than silver.
Page 2 (Tapes)
- The insane stickers are pulled randomly from other 1984-85 figures.
- Eject and Rewind have no hands whatsoever. It actually looks like the sculpted parts on the sides may have been intended as hands at the time.
- Ramhorn has a slightly different head.
- Steeljaw's sticker looks completely original.
- This is exactly the page shown on Hasbro's Transformer Checklist website page around 2007.
Page 3 (Combiners)
- Given the handpainted nature of these, all the colors are slightly different from finals.
- Swindle has real shoulders instead of elbow...ders! LAME!
- Swindle has a separated windshield as opposed to a single glass pane like on the final version.
- Brawl has a rounded turret, which we've seen on a set of animation models before. No, the twin cannon is not actually pivoting, but appears to be propped up behind the rear of the tank out of sight.
- Brawl is particularly unfinished, having a head that is basically a block with a visor. He's got the gun that Blast Off's final version does.
- Blast-Off appears to have a peculiar radar dish styled handgun instead of his usual one with the ammo clip off the side.
- Vortex has a different handgun, or one that attaches in a slightly different way.
- The front of Vortex's helicopter mode is much more rounded, explaining some things about the character model.
- Groove is largely lacking details on his chest piece and waist.
- Streetwise seems to be a handmade mockup. He has Tracks' head and is lacking the joint in the hood of the car.
- Blades has a very long stalk under the rotors for some reason.
- Blades is also holding Swindle's handgun.
- Groove and First Aid are both carrying Aerialbot weapons.
- First Aid has red windows rather than blue.
- More odd stickers on the Aerialbots, probably pulled from older sticker sheets.
Page 4 (Combiner Leaders)
- Hot Spot and Onslaught are handmade mockups lacking most detailing whereas Silverbolt and Motormaster look much closer to finished.
- Hot Spot has Perceptor's head but painted black, and a mockup body with no combination sockets.
- Hot Spot has Inferno's ladder.
- Onslaught is also missing combiner sockets, has a much larger chestplate, and a much thinner, shorter rifle.
- Onslaught's head is actually Inferno's, painted black and shaved down some on the sides and top.
- Superion's combiner kibble is mostly blue, except for the white feet (and silver paint for the face and the antennae).
- Defensor's head is actually just Devastator's.
Page 5 (Ultra Magnus)
- Ultra Magnus is the final version, albeit with the cab's robot mode stickers misapplied to the super robot mode.
Page 6 (Battle"springers")
- Recycled stickers again, obvious color changes.
- Again, handmade mockups so there are lots of details lacking. Those heads are HUGE.
- Despite both being black, they are actually entirely different mockups. The gray section on which the heads are mounted is the best way to tell them apart.
Page 7 (Autobot Cars)
- While Blurr's body is the same, his face and helmet are different. Both are shorter than the final, and his face is unfinished.
- Blurr's head is mounted differently. It has a very large, square black section underneath it, as opposed to the thin hinge the final has. It's possible that the helmet originally rotated to cover the face, as opposed to the whole head pivoting.
- Hot Rod is, of course, on the pinker side of red, and has clear (or rather, extremely light blue) windows. Also, his legs are extended farther than is possible on the final version (without opening it up and cutting some added plastic stops, that is), as shown by the little tapering going on above the red knee sections. His face is also unfinished. The designers likely sanded down and puttied over the existing sculpt and redid it whenever an updated character model came in. Note that the color seen here matches Hot Rod's character model as well as the flame stickers that remained on the sides of the final toy.
- Kup has some color differences and lack of paint, as well as a different, pudgier face with a thinner nose. The stickers appear to be very rough versions.
- Kup's legs also come together in a slightly different way, as the belt buckle is split three ways, whereas it is untouched on the final.
- Kup's arms are also flipped around, with the inner arm facing outwards. Granted, that's likely just a mistake on their part, since screw holes should not be facing us.
- He might, might have rubber tires in the back, but it's really hard to tell. In any case, they're different tires than what either final version has.
- All of the 1985 Autobot Cars are part of the assortment, but these toys were discontinued in 1986.
Page 8 (Decepticon Jets)
- The catalog mistakenly swaps Scourge and Cyclonus's names.
- Scourge looks like his face has also been puttied over and resculpted at least once. He has a very pronounced "angry" brow. Not much unfinished here. Missing fist holes. Different landing gear wheels as seen on the sides of his legs.
- Cyclonus has a different, silver head. Strangely, he's got stickers on his shoulders, but they've been painted over, and his shoulder stickers as we know them are on his forearms. The face looks the same, but the helmet is shaped differently. It appears to have originally been a separate piece on the silver plastic sprue, along with the face. The hands are slightly smaller as well. This prototype was also pictured in a 1986 European pack-in catalog.
Page 9 (Galvatron)
- Possibly the single earliest model in the catalog, all three of Galvatron's modes are non-transforming models, as the screwholes and joints are all missing. Poor guy.
- The obvious stuff is the color change on the particle cannon from smoke to sparkly orange, the giant handgun, and the colored fists.
- It's hard to tell exactly how Galvatron is carrying his cannon. He may very well be holding it, or there's a hole on the upper arm we can't see.
- The placeholder stickers on top of the cannon mode are pretty amusing, since they're basically saying, "SCULPT VENT PART HERE". Looks like something else was there before, but was carved off pretty quickly before painting.
- The mockups are all missing the circle on the sound effects button.
- The cannon barrel has three etched rings on it, as well as a different kind of, er, swervy divots between the start of the barrel and the rest of it.
- He has eyes with hilarious goofy pupils. Note that the description makes no note of light-up eyes, so that function was likely not implemented yet.
Transformers Fan Community Charity Drive
On February 23, 2010, an auction for the above pre-Toy Fair catalog was spotted on eBay. Paying the required $500 would have been overkill for one person, but it was suggested that if multiple fans donated $5 each, the catalog could be bought and shared with everyone. The Allspark (a Transformers fan message board) orchestrated this drive and very quickly reached the required monetary amount.
In fact, the Allspark raised more money than was needed. It was therefore suggested that instead of returning the surplus donations, the excess funds would be donated to Hasbro Children's Hospital. The drive continued, but this time with the goal of raising $2000. Ultimately, the charity drive raised $2340. The names of the contributors are listed below.
Contributors
|
|
|
|
References
- ↑ Greer, William ER. "TOY FAIR: FANTASY AND ELECTRONICS VIE" New York Times 8 February 1986
- ↑ http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=67034&view=findpost&p=1473392
