The NPD Group report that toy sales within the UK dropped by 2.8% in 2017 pointing at Brexit, under-performing licenses and issues around counterfeit toys as the primary causes. Total revenues for the year are reported as being £3.4 billion meaning that despite the decline the UK is still positioned as the largest market in Europe with three years of growth between 2014 and 2016.

Natasha Crookes, director of public affairs and communications for the BTHA stated that "the increasing breadth and depth of counterfeit toys is a real concern, with over £400 million worth of sales being lost to the industry, as well as the cost to companies from the theft of innovative design".

When asked to comment on the growing UK Collectable market Ms Crookes commented that they were "an unstoppable force within the industry". Figures show that the sector grew by 17%, dominated by Fingerlings, with the category now making up 9% of the overall value and 19% of all units sold. Frederique Tutt, global toy analyst for the NPD Group added that they "have seen significant year on year growth" in Collectables.

Doll play-sets, pre-school figures and action figures also all saw strong 2017 sales so it was not all doom and gloom outside of the collectable sector.

If you are attending the British Toy Fair this year you may want to head over to the Underground Toys / Gears for Games stand as amoung the plush toys you will find there will be some Transformers Prime Talking Plush toys as well as some Talking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  They will be on stand G110.

The official Hasbro UK stand will be showcasing the Transformers Prime Universe (The current Transformers Prime and some "Universe/Classics" figures) and Transformers Prime Beast Hunters toy lines.  The toys will be supported by Series 2 of the show starting to air between Jan and March as well as the release of the second set of Transformers Prime Season 1 DVDs.  There is a chance that the Optimus Prime truck will be at the event as it's continuing it's UK tour until November

"Action Game" manufacturer, Sambro, will be showing their licensed Transformers action games at the show as well.

The Private Universe have scanned a flyer that was given at the British Toy Fair which is an advertisement for the upcoming 2010 Transformers released including the first look at Deluxe Ironhide, Voyager Seaspray the Power Core Combiner 5-pack.  You can see the mirrored image below.

The UK Toy Fair (or British Toy Fair) starts today and runs through the weekend with today being press day.  Hasbro have a large stall at the event where they will be display some of the figures from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as well as G.I-Joe: The Rise of Cobra.  The event is strictly trade only with last years clamp down on "press passes" just as strong this year to keep internet journalist away.

Do not fear though, as Transformers At The Moon will be in attendance at the event at some point over the next five days, so we will bring you a full report (embargos allowing) with the full details as soon as we can.

In releated news the Bastion Press Centre report that "The volume of UK toy sales grew by seven per cent in 2008 according to retail tracking group NPD*. The group has also estimated the UK toy market is worth £2.9bn1. The value of the industry fell by two per cent on the previous year, compared to an overall drop in UK retail sales of 3.3 per cent**. The figures were unveiled at Toy Fair this morning by BTHA (British Toy & Hobby Association) chairman Roger Dyson. Toy Fair is the industry’s annual trade event currently taking place at ExCeL in London and is open to the trade until Saturday."

Well its been over a week since the British Toy Fair 2008 took place and what a toy fair it was. As we previously reported, Transformers won the best film license of 2007, the Movie Legends was the number 1 selling Action Figure within the UK, and a lot of new and some previously unseen items were displayed at the event. Now, with a big thanks to Minion, we can bring you information on exactly what was shown off at the event by Hasbro UK. Photos were not allowed at the event, so you'll have to wait for the US toy fair for those to be leaked out, but here's the good stuff.

Transformers Animated

Bulkhead was shown in three sizes. Deluxe, Voyager and Leader class. The leader size had a large jetpack with four wing blades coming out.

Optimus Prime was also shown in the same three sizes.

The voyager scale Megatron was on display along with what was probably the leader class, due to its size, helicopter version which had a cannon on the underneath of the cockpit. Minion asked the Hasbro representative who is was and she confirmed it was Megatron. It reminded him of the Miles Mayhem chopper in MASK.

Transformers Animated Fast Action Battlers were on display, though the line has officially bene renamed, only Minion can not recall exactly what to. They now have electronics and sounds as well as the pull back action and pop-out features. Three figures were on display, though Bumblebee is the only one he can recall at this time.

Jazz was also shown off in vehicle mode looking very sweet and G1 like (colour wise).

Other Animated figures were also on display, but nothing else was new as was the packaging.

Transformers Movie

Hasbro confirmed that the Transformers Movie line will run, within the UK, up to the launch of Transformers Animated, at which point it will be phased out. The Robot Heroes Optimus Prime / Bonecrusher 2-pack was part of the display.

Transformers Universe Classics AKA Classics 2.0

Sunstreaker, Prowl, Onslaught and Powerglide were all on display.

Powerglide was fully coloured and was pretty big, comparable to Jetfire. Not enough red for Minion's tastes as they made a lot of use of silver on his colouring.

Onslaught was much chunker than expected, the SWAT APC mode looked much better in person than the official images.

Sunstreaker had been over-handled by the end of the weekend and had fallen to pieces (it was a prototype being displayed).

Prowl looked great

Robot Heroes

Blitzwing and Galvatron were on display, as were a few others. They all looked great and continue the tradition of these collectable figures

Marvel Transformers

The Marvel Transformers were also on display, the first three figures being Hulk, Venom and Iron Man. Much smaller than the metamorphs and comparable to the Star Wars Transformers. Venom turns into a jeep/APC, Hulk a Tank and Iron Man a jet. They all looked pretty cool

We'd like to thank Minion for his report and hope you enjoy this awesome report of the 2008 British Toy Fair. We'd like to thank you in advance for linking to this article rather than copying its contents