Hot Toys Sold Only at Toys R Us
Quick, everybody! Look! Get to Toys R Us! Oh wait, this is an old ad.
Check out the name references here. I have to wonder whether the copy writer didn’t bother to use the names of the toys, or if the ad was produced before names were finalized.
My favorite aspect of this ad is just how gosh-darn shiny that Night Boomer is. Wow! Guess I need to get out the Meguiar’s and get to work on mine.
I never got into night force. Thought they didn’t have credibility as a real Joe product line. There were no tv ads or comic book stories……
Yeah, the Toys R Us exclusives never got their own commercials.
Awesome vehicles, beautiful toys!
Night Force seemed like among the earliest store-exclusive toys (though the Special Mission Brazil set was as well). At the time, toys were sold through so many different chains and individual stores that exclusivity would be seen as a liability. Between 1988/89 and 1998/99, what a turnabout. Closures and the rising market footprint of big chains allowed store-exclusive deals to become more feasible and indeed, big chains could demand such deals for themselves because they owned such a big percentage of the market share, Hasbro et al wanted to maintain good relations with said chain.
The funny thing about Night Force’s APC is their MO is they are a special stealth strike force, which infers operating alone (with themselves) and yet this is a troop transport vehicle with a capacity far greater than their team size.
Actually G.I. Joe ARAH store exclusives go back to 1982 when Sears had the Missile Command Headquarters. Then they sold the exclusive 1984 SMS and CAT, 1985 Vamp & HAL combo and 1986 Dreadnok Air and Ground Assault sets.
Ah right, I forgot about those. And also, I heard Sears exclusively had some 1985 figures (Dreadnoks) a little before Xmas 1984, along with the Bridge Layer, before they went non-exclusive in early 1985, back when Sears actually had some draw.
Who is sitting in the Moray turret: Cobra Commander? I always hit the inflation calculators when I see ads like this. That Night Boomer would be $48 in 2015. The 2 pack coming this August with the “stealth” Skystriker & HISS is looking like a better deal.
That would be Charbroil in the turret.
Who’s the genius who parked the APC so close to the runway?
I can’t get my mind around the fact that the figure 2 packs were $6.00. Inflation makes fools of us all.
I actually prefer these names!
Night Moray and Night A.P.C. don’t bother me one bit. Should be Night Striker though, or Night Skystriker.
But Night Striker had just been used the year before for the Killer WHALE repaint.
Man…. I wish I had known about the exclusivity of Night Force. I grew up in a pretty rural area and had very infrequent chances to ever visit a TRU back then. I was a huge fan of jets so I had been saving up my money for the Sky Raven and the Hurricane when I did get a chance to visit TRU and BAM! Night Boomer, Night Ray and more! I didn’t have enough for 3 jets, so I got the Sky Raven, Hurricane and settled for just the Spearhead/Muskrat 2-pack.
But then I began saving up for Night Force stuff and constantly looking at the other 10 figures and 8 vehicles pictured on the cross sell on the back of the Spearhead/Muskrat card. Put Night Force on my Christmas list, but when my parents went shopping, they didn’t hit a city with a TRU so they didn’t find any.
I kept looking for Night Force stuff everywhere… I had figured it’d be just like Tiger Force, Python Patrol and Slaughter’s Marauders… still totally unaware that it was a TRU exclusive (and that I had actually only seen the tail end of Night Force and completely missed the first year).
Eventually I made it back to a TRU though their NF stock had dwindled to 1 lonely Night Storm(Persuader) and the figure 2-packs so at least I had 1 vehicle and 6 figures then. The force was slightly bolstered with the mail-away Triple T that was “mostly” molded in the colors of the Night Raider
Not until going off to college and getting on the internet did I solve the mystery of Night Force and find out they were TRU exclusives.
I’ve since added the other 6 figures, a real Night Raider, Night Shade, Night Blaster, and my custom “Night Fall”(repainted Rattler). The real Night Boomer, Night Striker, Night Ray and Night Scrambler are probably too rich for my collecting habits now though.
Thanks for the scan of that ad!