French Transformers Fan Club Part 6: Club Special Offers

Unfortunately the last and final part about the French Transformers Fan Club series. But let’s go out with a bang!

In this final part we take a closer look at the last pamphlet that I own, the Club's special offers. 
So what is it exactly that we are looking at here? Its exclusive offers for members of the Club. They can buy specially selected Transformers with a discount, but you first need permission from your parents before you can buy them. 😉

The pamphlet dates from June 1986, as can be seen on the top left side. The offer itself was valid until the last day of December 1986. 

W.R. CONSEIL - R.C. PARIS B 303 334 288 06/86.

W.R Conseil was a Paris-based advertising agency founded in 1974 and closed in 1994. The last part is a SIREN number (303 334 288), a 9-digit identifier assigned to every registered business in France by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE).

Let’s get back to the four available Transformers. It is an interesting selection done by the French Fan Club. They are all series 1 from the MB releases (series 2 if you take the US series). 

Blaster has been released twice in Europe. In 1985 the MB version and re-released in 1986 with the Hasbro Bradley rebranding and an updated newer mold. Because he was released two times, It’s uncertain to me if you actually would have got Blaster in the MB box, or the later 1986 Hasbro Bradley quad-lingual box. Since this pamphlet dates from June ‘86, it makes more sense that you would have gotten the later Hasbro Bradley re-release.

Shockwave only ever was released with an MB box in Europe that I am aware of. Weirdly enough it is one of the hardest to find in an MB box. Very odd it ended as a Club exclusive.

Of the Jumpstarters I also have only ever seen MB boxes. They were probably released in big quantities because of the lower price range. But the problem was that they did not have a cartoon counterpart, which probably made them less appealing. So it could be that there was a big leftover stock that did not get sold in the stores and needed to be sold a different way.

These are the prices with discount:
Shockwave 200F (€30 or $33)
Blaster 150F (€23 or $25)
Twin Twist & Topsin 60F (a piece) (€9 or $10)

The current Euro and Dollar prices are recalculated without inflation correction of course.

So what would they have cost if you had bought them in-store? In other words, how much discount would you get by buying it through the club? I don’t know the French prices. But these four Transformers were of course also released in other mainland European countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain to name a few. Since I am a born and raised Dutchie, I am more familiar with those vintage prices. And thanks to the 20th Century Toy Collector for sharing a lot of Dutch vintage toystore catalogs and books on his famous blog. It was easy to find at least the prices on the Jumpstarters. In one of the books of the now closed-up toystore chain Bart Smit, there is the price for Jumpstarter Twin Twist.

Twin Twist 
Prijs: ƒ 24.95 (Bart Smit) (€11 or $12)
That means that on the Jumpstarters you would get a discount of around €2 or $2.

Maybe anyone know the European store prices for Blaster and Shockwave?

Well, that’s it for this special series. It was an absolute pleasure to dive deeper into the French Fan Club matter. I had great fun getting to unravel all these new details and I hope you liked it as well. I got a taste of it and will make more of these articles in the future.

A special thanks to Mijo the 20th Century Toy Collector for letting me use his scans. If you want to read more about the history of European MB releases, his blog is the place to be.

 

And of course Martin of TF Vault for giving me the opportunity and platform to share it over there.

All the best, Kees