1984: Toymakers and “Pre-Packaged Fantasy”

This (brief) AP article from 1984, taken from the December 4 Saturday Morning Deseret News, offers up more evidence of the strength of both Transformers and GoBots toys during the 1984 holiday season. If Each Sold Separately* didn’t convince you of the value of story in selling toys then articles like this one may just do the job.

The more I read of these old articles about Transformers, GoBots, and transforming robot toys of the eighties the closer I get to outlining a book on those very toys. Not an exhaustive encyclopedia of toys — those are out there — but more of an overview of the transforming robot toy fad and the cheap opportunistic toys that followed success.

Related articles

• 1984 Super GoBots Commercial (battlegrip.com)
• 1984 Television Report on GoBots and Transformers (battlegrip.com)