>>11259875Alot of those photos are almost 40 years old. There was definitely a progression though.
80s had those warehouse TRUs but also regular stores like Sears and Hills had alot of toys. By the early 90s, it was largely just TRU/KB. I had a tough time finding the tail end of G2. Never saw all three Dinobots together and never saw the Combaticons or Aeiralbots at all.
Mid to late 90s, you started to see more shelfwarmers hanging around. Stores still had decent amounts of toys but always seemed to be ones you didn't want or already had. But you could still brute force lots of stores and get alot of a line.
Now 2000s, delays hit hard. Everybody online was talking about figures I didn't see for months. TF Energon had this 8-month gap where nothing after wave 1 shipped. Just a sea of Ironhides. I bought Galaxy Force online because I was that sick of waiting for TF Cybertron. 2007, wall of Bayformer Bumblebees. 2008, Shittens and the bankers take KB.
Not much from 2010ish stands out. Marvel was bad, then hiatus, then back but impossible to find. The beehive thing continued with the movies and then Prime. I was ordering alot online because Bee was crowding out everything in stores.
TF Titans Return, 2014, was the last time I saw toys in volume. Some places had _tons_ of wave 1/2. Middle waves sprinkled but _nobody_ got wave 5/6. RiD 2015 followed a similar pattern.
2018 Shittens takes TRU. 2020 Lampert takes KMart. I haven't bought much in stores since. Target/Walmart are either empty (ML, Joe, TF), a year behind (Masterverse), or stuffed with dusty/trashed crap (naked Stratos, McF body horror, TF gimmick W1).
I wouldn't be surprised if toy aisles aren't a thing inside of 10 years.
