Catalogs

1987 Mattel Toys Dealer Catalog

Here is the 1987 Mattel Toys Dealer Catalog. Intended for retailers, Mattel’s dealer catalogs showcased all the latest and greatest releases, along with existing products within its various current (at the time) toy lines. New releases included:

  • King Randor
  • Sorceress
  • Clamp Champ
  • Scare Glow
  • Blast Attak
  • Snake Face
  • Ninjor
  • Sssqueeze
  • Buzz Saw Hordak
  • Mosquitor
  • Blade
  • Saurod
  • Gwildor
  • Rotar
  • Twistoid
  • Beam-Blaster & Artilleray
  • Tower Tools
  • Cliff Climber
  • Scubattack
  • Megator (delayed until 1988)
  • Tytus (delayed until 1988)
  • Tyrantisaurus Rex
  • Bionatops
  • Turbodactyl

Announced but unreleased items included:

  • Cosmic Key
  • Gyrattacker
  • Eldor
  • He-Ro
  • Gigantisaur

Conventional wisdom about the 1987 lineup says that Mattel was putting out a lot of reused parts in the new figures (like Scare Glow, King Randor, Clamp Champ). But really parts reuse existed in every year of the line. Taken altogether, there was quite a lot of new tooling in 1987, and a lot of new ideas to expand the line in new directions. It’s a pity that the line fizzled out before these ideas could be fully explored.

Source: Nathalie NHT