Hasbro's TransFormers rolled out onto retail store shelves in May of 1984 during a spot in the year when there isn't much toy advertising in newspapers. Consequently the earliest retail store ads I've found for Transformers are from late August '84, but by November retailers began heavily pushing the line. The amount of marketing support Hasbro gave retailers is impressive and this first year of Transformers advertising is rife with rich character descriptions that read almost like the Tech Spec biographies from the packages. During the early 80s many stores did not run toy ads using photographs of the figures but instead had to rely on manufacturer supplied line art. Unlike GoBots ads that only used line art of one or two robots from each assortment, I've found line art for almost every individual Transformer figure from the '84 lineup.

While sale prices fluctuated, the ads do provide a general idea of what regular prices were for the individual assortments. Autobot Minicars were most often regularly priced at $2.99. Deluxe Autobot cars were most often $8.99. The Decepticon jets usually sold for $11.99 and Soundwave was most often listed at $14.99. Optimus Prime and Megatron averaged a retail price of $19.99 each. Too few ads exist for me to estimate the average 1984 prices for Jetfire, Shockwave and the Decepticon cassettes. I have read at least one account of Dinobots being in stores by Christmas of 1984 but I've yet to find an ad for any Dinobot assortment from that time. Of course all these are my unscientific estimates from a very small sampling of data and shouldn't be considered absolute or manufacturer's suggested retail.

• For more thoughts and musings on old Transformers 1984 toy ads you can read my blog posts:
  • "My favorite Transformer continuity is K-Mart ads"
  • "I LOVE TRANSFROMERS-VSTP Update (emo meltdown edition)"