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Post by grahamthomson on Feb 25, 2009 19:10:23 GMT
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Feb 26, 2009 17:06:22 GMT
Oooh that is an informative site.
Andy
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dyrl
Empty
Transforming robots are no match for combat waitresses from the future!
Posts: 1,652
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Post by dyrl on Feb 26, 2009 17:38:05 GMT
So that's why - when I came back to Poland as a wee lad in 1991 I immediately (and SHOCKINGLY) found G1 Megatron in box sitting on a toy store shelf - just there. It must have been from this batch. Cool  Pete |
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Post by Bogatan on Feb 26, 2009 19:03:04 GMT
I read about this a few months ago on another site. It is facinating and explains much of the European toys from the classics up till G2.
Andy
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Post by legios on Feb 26, 2009 20:49:41 GMT
That is fascinating. It fills in a rather significant gap in what we know about the production history, always nice to get more pieces of the puzzle.
Karl
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Post by Bogatan on Feb 26, 2009 20:57:39 GMT
What it doesnt explain is how in China it was Leo zack that seems to have either been produced in small numbers or not at all (the one I read said the giftset had been releaed for them so if thats true there must have been some) but we got it but not the arms.
Andy
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Post by legios on Feb 26, 2009 21:02:50 GMT
True indeed. But then, I never really thought we'd know what we do know now about the Asian releases - and China especially - so there is still hope that more information will emerge in time.
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Feb 26, 2009 21:06:27 GMT
The answer is obvious: BATMAN.
-Ralph
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Post by Bogatan on Feb 26, 2009 21:13:47 GMT
Batman ate all the Leozacks.
Andy
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KoshNaranek
Minicon
Friends with the Zog Folk
Posts: 484
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Post by KoshNaranek on Feb 27, 2009 10:30:18 GMT
So, that's how I got Megatron for a tenner in 1993!
- Tony
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Post by Dark Stranger on Feb 27, 2009 20:27:40 GMT
Cool read. Also explains how I found the Constructicons, and Ravage & Rumble in the early 90s. £1.99 each they were!!
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Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Feb 27, 2009 20:46:00 GMT
Finding Scavenger and Mixmaster in a Woolworths in Cornwall in the 1990s was my second most exciting TF gain after Optimus Prime Christmas 1985. Slight anticlimax when I was told they were in every Woolies up and down the UK. That website scares me though. It presumes I care whether a TF was made in Japan in 1984 or China a few years later, or that I can fathom why anyone would care. Yes, I know people will pay more money for 1984 versions, but I have a mental blockage as to why. It's not like the real Mona Lisa by da Vinci and a fake Mona Lisa. They're all just mass produced toys. Sigh. Martin |
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Post by grahamthomson on Apr 8, 2010 19:21:13 GMT
I knew I'd mentioned this before in the past!
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Nigel
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
Posts: 5,098
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Post by Nigel on Apr 9, 2010 9:11:04 GMT
Funnily enough, I was doing some sorting the other day - spring cleaning the office - and was looking at my MOC Chinese Bumblebees - they're a slightly different shade of yellow to the original.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 27, 2011 9:52:23 GMT
Phil- true, true. Sadly the only other TFs the Jolly Giant turned up were Hardhead, Mindwipe and Rewind and Steeljaw. I already had Mindwipe, so I picked up the others along with Sixshot. That too was an awesome Christmas. -Nick |
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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 27, 2011 10:37:15 GMT
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Post by Shockprowl on Apr 27, 2011 13:40:40 GMT
How interesting. My TF knowledge has jumped forwards after reading this thread! Nice finds!
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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 27, 2011 16:03:21 GMT
I believe the Chinese TFs were imported by famous grey importers MBC of Chorley Wood.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2014 1:51:28 GMT
OK, this might test the memory banks of old-timers, but here goes…
Anyone remember in the early 1990s (1991, 1992, and possibly through to 1993, but before we'd heard of Generations 2 let alone seen it on the shelves) when Woolworths sold "reissues" of early G1 toys? Not the Classics series in their gold packaging, but the actual original packaging, the toys as they were, with the thermal faction symbols and everything.
We had Mini-Autobots (Bumblebee, Hubcap, Beachcomber, Seaspray), Soundwave's cassette partners, green Constructicons with their Devastator parts, and a few other figures I'm not too certain of. I know that in the mid '90s, some TMUKers claimed to have seen Fortress Maximus around that time, in original US packaging, however I didn't see that for sale in any Woolworths myself.
I'm not alone in remembering them, right? They did certainly exist, being stocked concurrently with some of the gold packaging Classics, and might have been grey imports of some description.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 14, 2014 7:30:18 GMT
Chinese grey imports. I've dug out and merged the relevant thread. My memory is the only ones Woolies had were the Constructicons who appear to have been Hasbro sanctioned as an exclusive The others turned up in independents and Toymasters. I recall getting a Menasor giftset at around this time, bought from a toyshop in Worcester Park, and seeing Headmasters in Woking in one of these shopsquat bargain places that used to spring up round Christmas. Also included were Clones, Autobot tapes, Ratbat, Punch/Counterpunch and Sixshot none of which ever got an official UK release There was a guy in Model Mart selling Mindwipe, Soumdwave and Sixshot: Andy K mentioned his Soundwave only this week in the How pure should original figures be? thread. See also: tfwiki.net/wiki/Generation_1_%28Chinese_toyline%29tfwiki.net/wiki/Classics_(Europe) |
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Post by Bogatan on Mar 14, 2014 9:11:28 GMT
Minibots were also Woolworths. Not sure if they were exclusive to them, but didn't see them elsewhere.
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Post by Llama God on Mar 14, 2014 9:19:52 GMT
Wow. My local Woolworth's missed out on something really important in the early '90s. Dammit. If I'd known I would've been all over those...
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Nigel
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
Posts: 5,098
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Post by Nigel on Mar 14, 2014 11:27:31 GMT
Woolworths had the Mini Autobots - I had a Bumblebee that I left the (sale) price label on so can be certain of that. The Mini Autobots were also available by collecting tokens on Tempo videos. I had another Bumblebee! I was a bit disappointed because from the RRP mentioned in the offer, I'd assumed it would be an Actionmaster, but hey, I have two carded Bumblebees.
I had Soundwave from the Model Mart guy. Unfortunately, I didn't get Mindwipe and Sixshot, largely because of the price (and I still don't have Sixshot :/ ) though I still have the letter that the seller sent me to tell me he had them.
At around the same time, maybe a little later, some imported Headmasters made it into UK discounters - I had Weirdwolf this way. It may have been Poundstretchers, but I have a feeling that by that time, the local Poundstretchers had moved to another premises, to be replaced by another discounter.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 14, 2014 18:00:23 GMT
You know if the green Constructicons were a grey import that would make the decision to release the 92 yellow Constructicons easier to understand: they just didn't know green Constructicons were out there.
Of course it still wouldn't explain the decision to gut the 92 Constructicons of their combining feature ..... other than Hasbro UK didn't (doesn't) like Combiners
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 14, 2014 20:29:49 GMT
A further thought:
I bought a Menasor boxset in 1994ish. It was from an independent toyshop in Worcester Park, possibly Toymaster affiliated, and they had more than one on their shelves.
Does anyone else remember seeing Scramble City boxsets around this time?
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Post by Jaymz on Mar 14, 2014 21:13:41 GMT
Attached pic is what remains of my Woolworths Hook. £6.13! My other Constructicons are actually IGA Mexican ones and were bought very cheaply from a marketstall after the whole lead paint scare. I honestly never thought I'd get a Hook to finish the set off until about a year later they randomly showed up in Woolies. The Woolworths minibots were definitely Chinese stock, they have the Chinese name sticker in the top right corner, or at least my Bumblebee does. Don't have the card to hand to scan it though. Sorry. Attachments:
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 14, 2014 21:19:39 GMT
ISN'T the Mexican Hook the one with the chromed Devastator head cannon?
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Jim
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Post by Jim on Mar 14, 2014 22:05:21 GMT
At around the same time, maybe a little later, some imported Headmasters made it into UK discounters - I had Weirdwolf this way. I remember Makro in Nottingham having piles of Headmasters in the early 90s for a while. A long-standing source of regret in not getting at least one! -Jim |
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kayevcee
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Post by kayevcee on Mar 14, 2014 22:34:44 GMT
Only saw the Scramble City giftsets once as a kid, in the big Boots in Argyle Street back in the 80s.
Apart from the Headmasters, Sixshot, Rewind and Steeljaw in the Jolly Giant that I mentioned... *checks quote* six years ago, there were a few random appearances in Woolworths in the post-Classics pre-G2 malaise. One day I walked in with my mum and ran smack into an entire bay of Bumblebee and Hubcap- just the two of them. Nobody else. They were 99p each- I remember because I kept the backing card for quite a while with the price sticker on it. The Constructicons showed up a few months later at a more hefty £6.49 each. I remembered that price because it was the same as the non-combining yellow Constructicons available at the same time.
-Nick
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 14, 2014 22:35:40 GMT
I think I got all bar one, from a little spring up shop squat in the shopping centre in Woking. Really regret selling them.
Same shop had Chinese/Japanes GIJoes and the Sentai Jetman combiner in, iirc, French packaging This would have been Christmas 94 the year after I left University so the year Power Rangers was HUGE
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