Toy Fair 1986 was held in New York City, New York. Unlike the Toy Fairs of today, the event was more geared towards retailers than the press, and catering to fanbases or the adult collector would have seemed humorous at the time.
Below are scans from Hasbro's pre-Toy Fair 1986 catalog, which also included pages on Transformers, My Little Pony and Hasbro Softies. Many of the toys seen in the images are not final. These images were put together to entice retailers into buying product assortments for the coming year.
Gallery[]
Transformers Fan Community Charity Drive[]
On February 23, 2010, an auction for the above pre-Toy Fair catalog was spotted on eBay. Dropping 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 site, orchestrated this drive, and very quickly reached the required monetary amount.
In fact, the Allspark raised more money than was needed, and so instead of returning the surplus donations, it was suggested that the excess funds be donated to Hasbro Children's Hospital. The drive continued, but this time with the goal of raising $2,000. Ultimately, the charity drive raised $2,340.
Contributors[]
For a list of all the contributors who helped purchase this catalog and donated to Hasbro's Children's Hospital, as well as the other images from the catalog, visit the Toy Fair 1986 page on the Transformers Wiki. It's their giving that made this page possible.
Behind the scenes[]
The pre-Toy Fair catalog was produced as part of a disinformation campaign. In 1986, Hasbro was planning on introducing the rockstar doll "Jem" as a competitor to Mattel's Barbie. A Mattel mole working at Hasbro learned of the doll's development, and reported it to the rival company. In order to convince Mattel that they'd dropped the idea, Hasbro quickly produced this catalog using prototypes they had available, purposely excluding Jem from the presentation. Only a small number of pre-Toy Fair catalogs were produced, heavily overshadowed by the actual show catalog, which of course featured Jem prominently.