I grew up in country Victoria, Bairnsdale.
a small town but we were lucky enough to have a Toyworld and a toykingdom, both very small. We also used to have the smallest Myer in the state and they stocked some transformers.

It was an hours drive to the nearest larger town (Sale) and a 3.5 hour drive to Melbourne.

I was lucky enough to get a G1 Megs at one point. All I ever had to go on was what was on the shelves at those stores, especially the Toyworld, and what was in the transformers catalogue in the toys I already had.

I expect my parents (mum really) went out of their way to acquire toys for us growing up. I do know that I spent a whole lot of my pocket money and paper round money at the local toy world, to the point that even now I stop by when I'm home and the store owner knows me by name...

A couple years ago when I was looking for some old boxes to scan to help out the guy making that Transformers legacy book I came across an old laybuy receipt from there. it was a good cm thick. I remember in my early Teens starting a laybuy with them and continuing it for months going in every week or two and adding my money to it. They even let me add a couple toys to it when I saw them in store. That's how I got the Protectobots among others, they might have been the 'gold box' release, I can't recall.