Toy Fair

Toy Fair is a yearly toy industry trade show event where companies show off what products they're going to put on the market. LEGO showed off SpongeBob sets in 2006, 2009, 2011, and 2012.

Sets shown off in the Toy Fair sometimes have differences compared to the final retail released set, but most of the time, they show early box art that looks very different from the final version.

=Toy Fair 2006= At Toy Fair 2006, LEGO showed off their 3 2006 sets, The Krusty Krab, Build-A-Bob, and Adventures in Bikini Bottom. The sets themselves look almost identical to the final release, with only a few differences, while the box art for Adventures in Bikini Bottom has a few different things.

Differences with Adventures in Bikini Bottom

 * Adventures in Bikini Bottom is just called "Bikini Bottom".
 * The art itself looks slightly different from the final box, but overall looks very close. Some positions are different and such.
 * More basketballs were to come in the set than the final version.
 * The SpongeBob minifigure doesn't have a normal printed face in the version shown, and Patrick's face is presumably painted on.