He said Hasbro earnings for the first half of this year alone are expected to exceed the $15 million total of 1983.Įach of the two manufacturers predicts that its GoBots or Transformers will have the most successful first year ever for a new toy.

Hasbro expects the phenomenal success of the toys so far to help boost its revenue to $400 million or more this year, Hassenfeld reported at the company's annual meeting in June. Transformers reached toy stores in May, and by the end of July Hasbro already had shipped 3 million of them. Advance orders for the company's Transformer toys already exceed those of any other nonelectric toy in the industry's history, said Stephen D. Hasbro, of Pawtucket, R.I., is known best for its G.I. GoBots hit the store shelves in January, and by August they were ranked as the third-best-selling toy of the month by Toy & Hobby World, one of the toy industry's trade magazines. Tonka, based in Minneapolis and best-known for its motorless trucks, expects to sell 15 million of its GoBots this year. 'It's the year of the robot in the toy industry,' said Paul Valentine, leisure-time analyst at Standard & Poor's. Levy is one of millions of kids across the country who are being swept up by the GoBot/Transformer phenomenon. So, I think they're going to be around for a long time.'

'They're really well-made, and they're two toys in one. 'GoBots and Transformers are terrific!' said Levy, who lives in Bethesda. Just ask Josh Levy, a six-year-old, erudite action-toy aficionado who obviously appreciates the finer points of marketing these sleek new toys. They're the hottest new high-tech toys of the year. With a few intricate twists and turns, the robots can be reshaped into sports cars, trucks, helicopters, fighter jets, trains, tanks, motorcycles, cassette recorders and guns, and then back again.

They're made in Japan, range from about $3 to about $29 and are promoted as 'male-action figures' - dolls for boys. Tonka Corp.'s GoBots and Hasbro Industries Inc.'s Transformers are colorful metal and plastic '2-in-l' robot toys. They're taking over kids' minds, moving into the nation's living rooms and invading the shelves of toy stores across the country. GoBots and Transformers are invading America.

Gobot identification