Autobot Minicars, Decepticon Cassettes, and Decepticon Leader on Sale in 1984

November 21, 1984. This advertisement from the Saint Joseph, Michigan, Herald Palladium newspaper is for Hasbro’s Transformers toys on sale at the Plaza Toys N’ Things, and indie shop that clearly was a place all of us would have wanted to visit in 1984. Just how is it that the toy selection at small shops was so much better back in the eighties than it is today? Did the manufacturers like Hasbro and Mattel grow so big that the little shops aren’t worth their time, or have the big box stores really devastated the indie shops to the point that stores simply don’t think it is worth carrying a wide selection of mainstream toys?

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