It took many years of nominations, but Transformers has finally been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame for 2024. Transformers will be joined by My Little Pony and Phase 10, beating out other nominees Apples to Apples, balloons, Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks, Hess Toy Trucks, Pokémon Trading Card Game, remote-controlled (R/C) vehicles, Sequence, stick horse, and trampoline. Organizers The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York now has the three winners on display as part of their National Toy Hall of Fame exhibit.
The Strong had this to say about Transformers:
About Transformers: Hasbro, Inc. first offered Transformers, a toy line of action figures that change their shapes, in the mid-1980s. Marketed with an elaborate backstory supported by a Marvel comic book series, a cartoon television series, animated movies, electronic games, consumer goods, and even its own cereal, Transformers have remained popular ever since. Their popularity has been fueled by additional movies, television shows, and comic books. For more than 40 years now, the appeal of Transformers is, in part, that the toys do what kids do anyway—change the toy to suit the needs of play.
Says Chris Bensch, chief curator, “Transformers enjoy such popularity, in part, because Hasbro has used tried-and-true marketing methods—the multimedia venues for toy-related shows, books, and movies; related consumer products; and new variations and characters regularly added to the line—to keep the toy in front of American kids. But the toys are also popular because they are so suited to the ways kids play. The toy line feeds kids’ imaginations and fantasy play.”
Congrats to the toys that have brought every one of us at Seibertron together!
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