I meant a catalogue that showed an existing toy interacting with a toy that didn't exist yet, as per the suggestion that current MP cars should be photographed interacting with the as-of-now non-existent MP Ultra Magnus.

So for example, the 1986 catalogue showed Metroplex with the 1986 Mini Cars interacting with it. But at the time, both Metroplex and those Mini-Cars were in existence and available for retail purchase. I've only seen a concept silhouette of MP Magnus, not even any images of unpainted prototypes like MP Bumblebee. So currently the only larger vehicle that the MP cars can interact with is MP Convoy. So as a selling point it makes more sense to inform consumers that the MP cars are "reverse compatible" with the MP Convoy toy (thus enticing people who already own Convoy to consider purchasing the MP cars to play along with it). I think it would make more sense to show Ultra Magnus w/ the MP cars on the MP Ultra Magnus box itself (which I'm sure they will), then for any future MP car releases they can show the cars interacting w/ MP Magnus and/or Convoy. I don't quite see the logic of showing the cars interacting with Ultra Magnus now when the toy doesn't yet exist, and some of the more casual collectors of MPs (and they do exist) may not be necessarily aware that MP Ultra Magnus is down the pipeline. I personally cannot recall any TF catalogue that displayed toys interacting with another toy that didn't exist yet, like say the 1986 Autobot cars (pre-TM) interacting with say Fortress Maximus.

Some of the G1 catalogues would either use concept silhouettes or "stand in" figures for toys that didn't yet exist at the time that the catalogues were created, and often figures varied between the time that the catalogue was made and when the final toy was released (e.g. Bluestreak, Slag, Astrotrain etc.). The early 1988 catalogue showed approx. half the Pretenders in just silhouettes with "Coming Soon!" plastered across them. Many of the Micromaster playsets just show them with the original versions of the moulds that were eventually repainted for them (e.g. Ironworks is shown w/ Powertrain etc.), and some just featured entirely unrelated toys as stand-ins, e.g. Skystalker is shown w/ Roadhandler etc.

So when it comes to the suggestion that current promotional images of MP Wheeljack should show him interacting w/ MP Ultra Magnus... I'm not entirely sure where the precedent for this exists. Currently I've only seen an illustrated silhouette of the toy; not even any unpainted prototypes for Wheeljack to be displayed with.

If anyone knows of a specific example of a catalogue that shows a toy being showcased or interacting with a future toy that didn't yet exist at the time of that display, please let me know and I'll happily sit corrected.

Quote Originally Posted by Robzy View Post
Those catalogues were some of my favourite things when I was a kid (especially that 1985 one). I would stare at them for hours.
Ditto. I used to try and draw all of the toys from that catalogue too, which sometimes got interesting when I was trying to draw a toy that I hadn't yet seen IRL yet, so just based on squinting at those little catalogue photos for ages. I initially thought that Repugnus was a major retool of Snarl (and drew him using the same basic body structure).