Retailer interest in Transformers continued to decline and by 1988 only a few die hard chains like Target, K-Mart, Toys R Us and Children's Palace were still advertising them in their weekly circulars. The days of featuring one single type of Transformer per ad began to fade away as stores instead began grouping many figures of various price points from the same line together in one ad. Action figures were still rather popular with much ad space being devoted to properties like G.I. Joe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but the dawn the Nintendo and electronic gaming in general meant the twilight of the golden age of Transformers newspaper ads.

There weren't as many ads as previous years but there were still enough to give estimates about most of the 1988 assortments. The first four Micro Transformers patrols debuted this year at a regular price of $4.99. Autobot and Decepticon Pretenders were most often $7.99 while Pretender Beasts averaged a dollar higher at $8.99. Pretender Vehicles and the Powermaster Autobots and Decepticons averaged $11.99 while Doubledealer the Powermaster Mercenary and Quickswitch the Autobot Six Changer were usually $16.99 each. Powermaster Optimus Prime most often sold in the neighborhood of $24.99. 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 1988 toy ads you can read my blog post:
  • "Transfromers 1988-You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself be made into Mister Potato Heads"