TF Views

Mini Toy catalogs inside newer TF toys,do they help sell toys?

Don't know why Hasbro removed the toy catalogs for the TF4 AOE, TFP-BH and Animated TF toy lines. Think no catalogs is why kids/fans interest and toy sales were so low

I think they do. Think this is why The Armada,Energon and Cybertron toys sold so well.

Think when kids and fans see a bunch of newer TF toys photos in a mini catalog, This makes them aware of toys they didn't know existed. it also generates wish list, excitement and interest in the newer TF toys in stores.

I know that those original fold out posters back in the G1 days when I was a kid sure made me want other figures. Especially that second wave poster which just had so many figures on it. And they all looked so cool. It did help that toys were on the shelf for more than a few months at a time back then.

Product promotion like that just makes sense to me. A kid opens his Transformer, and inside the package is a poster with another thirty figures on it, photographed well to make them look awesome. Sure, it should sell more.

I loved the pack in comics from armada and energon. I must've tore those to pieces flipping through them. I think they also had pack in catalogs with BW for other Kenner toy lines as well, and I have fond memories of those (I specifically remember getting a toy catalog when the Fuzors were out that advertised a line of really creepy looking batman figs that I totally needed)

The last good mini-catalogs were the Beast Wars-era Kenner catalogs, after that they shrunk them down to a very small amount of product that wasn't even that enticing, and it's so small that there's nothing to dream about, and most of it is already out or nearly out by the time the catalog hits. I honestly doubt the current batch sells anything at all, especially when they put "brand" products on the other sides like backpacks and skateboards - hell, they probably put out mini-catalogs just to appease the licensees of that shit.

I'm sure they did help sell toys. I know I was really into those back in the G1 days.

Of course, after the movie, I figured if a toy didn't show up in the next catalog it meant that character was killed off. Man, I was one sad little monkey when i realized the Dinobots weren't around in the fourth catalog.

I still have the ones from the G1 years. I haven't really saved any from recent years though.

I still have all my old catalog posters in a box, and all the tech specs I clipped from the boxes, and a bag full of robot points and whatever other odds and ends of paperwork I saved. There are instructions on how to combine the Constructicons into Devastator and some other bits as well.


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I used one poster to check off all the figures my brothers and I collected with an eye towards getting them all. It never happened, but that was the goal. The catalog poster worked as intended on us. We wanted them ALL.


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I'd have to say I miss the little toy catalogs that used to come with figures. I still have some Power Rangers catalogs somewhere, and the little comic/catalogs that Hasbro did during Armada/Engeron and the map for Cybertron. I also really liked the Kenner booklets that showed several figures from several different toy lines. Really gave you and idea of what all to find in the toy isles. I wouldn't mind to see those make a return, I think it does help sell toys.

The catalogs could easily be revived in a modern format that actually TOLD people when they could expect things, in a reasonable, official and easy-to-read manner. I shouldn't HAVE to rely on fansites to keep track of this for me; the official websites SHOULD keep me in the loop, but they don't. It's the same problem with the comics industry!

Onslaught Six wrote:The catalogs could easily be revived in a modern format that actually TOLD people when they could expect things, in a reasonable, official and easy-to-read manner. I shouldn't HAVE to rely on fansites to keep track of this for me; the official websites SHOULD keep me in the loop, but they don't. It's the same problem with the comics industry!

Hasbro no longer wants to get hopes up too far in advance, which would be required to print a catalog that showed off more product. They do this because they want manage expectations instead of having to suffer changes and get complaints, and also they want to manage an ebb and flow of interest so that they don't frontload the year with demand only to have it fall off later in the year when something that's already been seen a lot finally comes out.

Then again, maybe if their photography was better, they'd have a nicer catalog of existing product photos to create a catalog of up-to-date products at least.