Transforming Toy-Giving in 1985
Here’s a fantastic newspaper article from Melbourne, Australia’s The Age in which grumpy grandfather and columnist Keith Dunstan tries to make sense of Transformers toys. The article’s a wonderful real, with Dunstan bashing out terrific and quotable statements about the cartoon and toys. For example:
“Now these robots are extremely puzzling. As robots they clank along as incredibly ugly creatures on two legs, but in moments of peril, which are utterly constant, they transform into trucks, motor vehicles of all kinds, jet planes and even tape recorders.”
Dunstan’s article goes on to support what all of us already knew: The toys were so hot back in the mid-eighties that they were tough to locate at Christmas. Dunstan writes:
“I have been to five toy shops looking for Transformers. Four of them reported that the disease was of such proportions there were none left anywhere. Even the distributors had none.”
I guess kids of my time didn’t have any taste at all. After all, didn’t the majority of us want transforming robot toys for Christmas in 1985? I know I sure as hell did.
