Toys"R"Us

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Toys"R"Us (stylistically "ToysЯUs" in the official company logo) was one of the world's biggest toy retailer chains, based in the United States but with branches in many other countries. According to various sources, it accounted for anywhere from 15 to 20% of major toymakers' sales.

Over the years, they carried many exclusive Transformers toys, in addition to regular mass retail releases. Many of those exclusives have been carried not only by US retailers, but also by international ToysЯUs branches.

Japan also has its own branch of ToysЯUs (トイザらス, Toizarasu), which has its own exclusive toys from TakaraTomy, independent of the toys Hasbro provides Western ToysЯUs stores with.

After a buyout by venture capitalist firms including Bain Capital, the chain was saddled with a massive debt when the cost of paying back the loan used to buy the chain was then dumped onto it, with interest. Despite rebounding sales-wise and making a profit above its nominal operating expenses, the sheer size of the debt was too much, and ToysЯUs eventually declared bankruptcy on September 18, 2017, leading to their planned liquidation, resulting in all stores in the United States to be closed by May 14, 2018. Stores in Japan were similarly effected.

Fiction

IDW Generation 1 continuity

A Toys"R"Us store was in Times Square. All Hail Megatron #1

Commercial appearances

At a Toys"R"Us store in a Quadwal stream where toys are sentient, Snackin' Sara the Baby Alive toy informed an unboxed Optimus Prime toy about the store's Price Match guarantee, wherein if Optimus was found at a lower price at another retailer, Toys"R"Us would match their prices. The Optimus toy was confused as to the existence of another one of himself and was advised by Sara to look to his left. When he did so, both he and his doppelganger were distraught at their existence, a panic which soon spread to his entire shelf, fully populated by Optimuses. Toys"R"Us Commercial

List of Toys"R"Us exclusive toys (Western market)

Robots in Disguise

Commemorative Series

The entire Commemorative Series toyline was originally intended to be exclusively available from Toys"R"Us stores. However, two toys from the later series were ultimately made available through other venues, at least for the United States market.
Series I Series II Series III Series IV
Series V Series VI Series VII Series VIII
Series IX
Unlike Skids, Side Swipe was only released at Toys"R"Us stores in the United States in very low quantities. The unsold stock was made available a year later through KB Toys stores and outlets, at half the original price. He was, however, available at Toys"R"Us stores in Canada and Australia in average quantities.

Energon

Although the larger packaging for these three six-packs was new, the toys themselves were unchanged from their Armada releases. Desipte the name on the packaging, the "Road Wrecker Team" actually used the toys' original Destruction Team colors. The Road Wrecker/Night Attack Team and Race/Space Team packs were also available at Walmart stores.
These were the smaller sculpts for both characters that were available as mass retail releases in Japan.

Universe (2003)

Alternators

There was a "Mega Alternators" assortment carried by Toys"R"Us... which ultimately turned out to be merely shrinkwrapped combos of single Alternators releases. The most common combinations were Smokescreen/Side Swipe and Smokescreen/Silverstreak, but Smokescreen/Windcharger, Smokescreen/Autobot Hound, and even Smokescreen/Smokescreen combos have been found as well.

Cybertron

Starscream was a redeco of the Voyager Class Starscream sculpt that was otherwise only available in Japan. Vector Prime, on the other hand, was identical to his single Hasbro release.

Titanium Series

Beast Wars 10th Anniversary

Classics

Transformers (2007)

These two toys are unchanged from their single releases.
These six toys are unchanged from their single releases.

Animated

These toys were unchanged from their single releases.
The above two toys were originally scheduled for general retail.

Universe (2008)

Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers (2010)

Dark of the Moon

Mission Earth

Scan Series Cyberverse multipacks
Toys"R"Us exclusive Scan Series Ironhide

Age of Extinction

Evolution 2-packs

Titans Return

The Arcee and Ultra Magnus Pack was first released at HasCon 2017 and later New York Comic Con 2017, the same day this set is released for pre-order in Toys"R"Us.

The Last Knight

Mission to Cybertron Premier Edition Deluxe Premier Edition Voyager

Studio Series


List of Toys"R"Us Japan exclusive toys

Beast Wars

List of Toys"R"Us exclusive toys from other countries

Europe

Transformers Animated

  • Autobot Ratchet & Bumblebee two-pack (Deluxe Class)
    • These two toys were unchanged from their single releases. This two-pack was not available at North American stores, but was available as a Toys"R"Us exclusive in the United Kingdom and Germany.

    Revenge of the Fallen

  • Autobot Wheelie vs. Decepticon Sideways two-pack
    • These two toys were unchanged from their single releases. This two-pack was not available at North American stores, but was available as a Toys"R"Us exclusive in the United Kingdom and Germany. The two-pack was given a general retail release in Australia, or at least turned up in a few different stores.

    Beast Hunters

  • Optimus Prime vs Predaking
    • Thus far, this two-pack has been found at Toys"R"Us stores in Portugal, the United Kingdom, Germany and France; in Germany, it was explicitly advertised as a Toys"R"Us exclusive. Since the only known official stock photos have shown this two-pack in multilingual European packaging, it's very likely that this has always been intended as a European market exclusive; however, it has also been found at general retail in Brazil.

    Masterpiece

    Most Hasbro Masterpieces were released as Toys "R" Us exclusives .

    Australia

    Universe

    Voyager Deluxe Comic 2-packs

  • Autobot Ambush (G1 series), contains:
  • Standoff Beneath the Streets (War Within series), contains:
    These 2-packs were originally sold as Target exclusives in the United States.

    Masterpiece

  • Masterpiece Grimlock (2010)
  • Starscream Ghost Version (2010)
  • Masterpiece Thundercracker (2012)
  • Masterpiece Optimus Prime (2012)

Notes

  • Toys"R"Us was also supposed to carry a redeco of Armada Jetfire done up as a Generation 1 Astrotrain homage that would have been released as a Universe toy named Spacewarp, together with redecos of the Armada Space Mini-Con Team. Ultimately, however, Toys"R"Us backed out of the deal, and Spacewarp was never released. While the Space Team redecos remain unreleased to this very day (Takara claims that the molds have become unusable), the planned Spacewarp deco was later used as the basis for the Collectors' Club exclusive Astrotrain redeco of Armada Jetfire, with a new head sculpt.
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