1985 was the biggest year ever for Transformers newspaper advertising. Everyone from mall department stores to hobby shops, drug stores, hardware stores and even grocery stores ran Transformers ads. Of course there were also ads from dedicated toystores and the large retail chains but the multitiude of outlets that sold Transformers was staggering, as was the variety of merchandise they advertised. 1985 saw newspaper ads for everything from Transformers videos to train sets, costumes, clothing, bubble bath, gummi candy and battery operated toothbrushes. The volume of ads for licensed Transformer tie-in merchandise in 1985 alone outnumbers the amount of advertising placed for the entirety of most other toylines!

The vast majority of stores continued selling Transformers that debuted in the '84 assortments at full retail, however the BEST retail chain (La Belle's in some areas) did run an ad one week before Christmas with clearance pricing on a number of '84 and '85 Transformer figure assortments. Clearancing was the exception, though, and it wasn't until 1986 that other stores would follow suit beginning the holiday season by running ads clearancing the previous year's Transformers. It eventually became a common practice although a few assortments continued shipping well beyond their original debut year.

Ads for certain figure assortments like Jetfire and Shockwave that were quite rare in 1984 began showing up more frequently by 1985. However, ads for the 2-pack Decepticon cassettes continue to remain very elusive in my searches. I would really like to find an ad featuring line art for the any of the figures from the Decepticon cassette 2-packs. Unlike the 1984 lineup where line art can be found for nearly every individual figure, not all figures from 1985 got line art representations in newspaper ads, but at least there is mention of every figure assortment.

Even though there were more stores advertising it's actually tougher to pin down what any particular figure cost at regular retail because so many stores had so many different and widely ranging regular retail prices. I can estimate that in 1985 Autobot Minicars generally cost in the range of $2.99 to $3.99 and Jumpstarters were usually anywhere from $3.99 to $6.99. Autobot cars usually cost $9.99 to $10.99 but sales were most often around $8.99. I can't make generalizations about average 1985 prices of the deluxe Autobot cars Whirl and Roadbuster because I have too few examples of those. Blaster, Perceptor and the Dinobots were usually around $15.99. Optimus Prime usually sold for $19.99 and Jetfire averaged $25.99. Omega Supreme was the largest and most expensive Transformer of 1985 with an average retail in the neighborhood of $35.99 to $39.99. On the Decepticon side, Insecticons came in at around $4.99 to $5.99 and Deluxe Insecticons averaged $9.99. I can't make generalizations about the Decepticon cassettes or Soundwave because I have too few examples of those. The Constructicons averaged a regular retail of $5.99 but were most often on sale at $4.99 and the Devastator giftset was in the range of $32.99. Triple Changers were usually $11.99. Decepticon jets usually got advertised at $13.99. Shockwave ranged from $19.99 to $24.99 and Megatron could usually be found for $19.99. Of course all these are my unscientific estimates from very small sampling of data and shouldn't be considered absolute or manufacturer's suggested retail.

• For more thoughts and musings on old Transformers 1985 toy ads you can read my blog posts:
  • " More than meets the price!"
  • "Did GoBots write "Don't ever change" in each other's high school yearbooks?"
  • "I'm still preoccupied with toy robots ads from nineteen, nineteen, 1985...also 1984, 1986 and 1987, and to a lesser extent 1988 through 1990."