Review – 1985 McDonald’s Transformers Toy Test
I received an email last week asking me why I devote energy to reviews of older toys. The author of the message preferred that I focus on new toys — toys that can be easily purchased today — instead of toys that are either difficult to locate or expensive. I appreciated the mail, traded a few messages with the sender, and explained my reason for photographing and reviewing old toys as a chance to document and share the past before it escapes us.
St. Louis, 1985
Modern Transformers toys from Hasbro (find at Amazon.com*) aren’t all that tough to locate, and even most Generation One toys from the eighties are available (though sometimes expensive), but there are some oddities that are not exactly simple to pick up. Weird, off the norm, forgotten toys that some may not even know exist. Such as the static Transformers toys shown in these photos.
It was only recently that I even learned of these toys, and checking the TFWiki we find:
“In 1985, McDonald’s gave away non-transforming, non-poseable figurines of four Mini Vehicle characters, each rendered in six different color variations, in various two-color combinations of red, green, blue, yellow and black. These figures were only available in St. Louis as a test run.”
Why do I photograph and review older toys? These Transformers toys are the perfect explanation for why I share older toys with the world. There simply aren’t any great photos of the toys online, and what is out there is limited. With this review I can give everyone a higher-quality peek at a completely unusual plaything.
Simplistic and Cheap
These small Transformers toys are completely static — don’t expect them to transform! — and the construction is a simple plastic toy that feels even cheaper than many of the “Happy Meal” toys we’ve seen over the years. If these were truly a test for a possible wider release then I’m not surprised that the toys never saw release outside of the test area; these are horrible toys that, I believe, actually did more harm than good to the Transformers brand in 1985. I know that if I had received one of these I would have been an unhappy child.
Fantastic Collectibles!
Three decades can make a serious difference in how something is perceived. These may have been cheap toys in 1985, but today I feel that collectors of Transformers toys (find at Amazon.com*) should find these fun additions to the shelves. They’re odd and uncommon, making the little toys great conversation pieces for even the most dedicated of Transformers fans.
A Wonderful Purchase
I was fortunate to stumble across these for sale online and didn’t hesitate to grab them. These 1985 McDonald’s Transformers toys are far from the best pieces in my collection, but as soon as I find the perfect shelf for these they’re going to make a wonderful addition to the shelves. They are cheap, as you can tell, but they’re unusual and not readily available so I’m happy to have run across them today. I’d hate to think what these would have cost me if I hadn’t encountered them for another ten or twenty years.
Awesome piece Phil!
I agree with you that these are the best kind of articles, toys that the majority of us will never see or own.
Not to besmirch the other fella, to each their own and you still do a fair share of current toys as well.
@Court – Thanks! The discussion I had through email was very friendly and I thought it worth mentioning.
Yeah, I feel you do a good job of reviewing both modern and classic toys. I hope you never stop reviewing the classics, especially obscure items. Many reviewers tackle mostly new releases, but you manage to tackle corners of nostalgia that I don’t see anywhere else.
I will hesitantly admit that I’m glad you’re getting back into reviewing toys and other items, as the long stretch of black-and-white toy ads was getting a little tired. They’re valuable and interesting from an historical perspective, but personally I enjoy when there’s more variety.
@Kevin – Time has been my problem over the last several months. I have almost none. The recent reviews were done between other things, and only because I found myself waking in the middle of the night.
Another two or three months of insanity and then I _think_ my life will calm down and everything can return to normal.
Totally know what you mean about the time consumption of maintaining a blog. From that perspective, I would rather you keep up with quicker posts than letting it go dormant!
@Kevin – That’s exactly the idea. Plus, I am having fun digging through those archives. There are several great surprises hiding in those old newspapers.