Package art
From Transformers Wiki
- Main
- Gallery
Throughout the life of the Transformers brand, package art has been one of its most common elements. Though not as widely noted and celebrated as Tech Specs, it is just as enduring and iconic to the brand. In the fandom, it is also referred to as box art, though it also appears on carded toy packages.
Transformers package art most often serves to portray the toy in the mode that it isn't packaged in. As most Transformers are sold in their non-robot forms, it typically shows them as robots (or whatever their equivalent primary mode is.)
Generation 1
Hasbro (The Transformers)
Every Transformer sold in Generation 1 featured hand-painted artwork on the front of the package, most often showing the robot mode, with the vehicle form of the actual toy visible alongside it through a clear plastic window or bubble. A smaller version of the art was shown as part of the character's biography and Tech Spec profile. Generation 1's package art also showed up in numerous merchandising items, such as Action Cards, pack-in flyers, iron-on patches, party hats, and more.
Some toys would also have art depicting their vehicle mode. The Jumpstarters had vehicle art because they were packaged in robot mode, and the Triple Changers had art for the vehicle mode the toy wasn't packaged in. The tech specs still used the robot art only. Punch also had boxart for both of his robot modes. Another exception to the rule was the Clones, sold packaged in their identical robot modes, with artwork of their different alternate modes alongside them. Vehicle mode art was generally used only on windowed boxes, since the non-windowed boxes (such as Omega Supreme, Metroplex, Fortress Maximus, and Countdown) had large pictures of all alternate modes on the front.
Package art for the multiple-form Pretenders featured all of their forms: outer shell and both modes of the inner robot. As the multiple-form Mega and Ultra Pretender toys came along, this resulted in some rather crowded package art.
The character art for many of the Diaclone-licensed characters was directly appropriated from their original Diaclone boxes, including Autobot vehicles, Dinobots, and Decepticon cassettes. This style was maintained for all newly commissioned Generation 1 (and Generation 2) character art, presumably for consistency.
This art style often depicted a somewhat fictionalized version of the robot mode. While the reproduction of the toy's finer details was done very faithfully, the actual poses were often utterly impossible to reproduce given the limited articulation of most Generation 1 toys. Seemingly, the less the posable the toy was, the greater the artistic exaggeration tended to be; thus, the Throttlebots and Battlechargers were shown with jointed arms, separable legs and posable heads, even though the represented toys lacked all these features.
Some of the first year's character art, such as Optimus Prime, Jazz, and some of the Seekers, were painted by Jeffrey Mangiat. The 1984 mini-vehicles, as well as Shockwave and Jetfire, were illustrated by Mark Watts. A large portion of the 1986 through 1988 character line art was done by Richard Marcej[1], including some if not all of the Predacons, Headmasters, Targetmasters, Powermasters, Seacons and Pretenders. Much of the late-run Generation 1 package art was the work of Japanese illustrator Hidetsugu Yoshioka, whose work brought a dynamic and appealing style to the often blocky and simplistic toys.
A number of the original Generation 1 paintings have appeared for sale at recent BotCons, at asking prices starting at $650 and ranging up to several thousand dollars. The classic character artwork reappeared with the release of the Vintage G1 line, featured on both the front of the box and on the Tech Spec card on the back.
TakaraTomy (Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers)
Takara followed Hasbro's lead with regard to the packaging design of Transformers, with the vast majority of the character artwork for the first three years of the line being identical to their U.S. releases. In some instances however, Takara utilized different artwork from Hasbro for some of the line's figures, including among others alternate character artwork for Optimus Prime, Megatron, Astrotrain (white version), Trypticon and Fortress Maximus. Takara also had new artwork in the same style as the preceding Diaclone and Hasbro character artwork created for Japanese-only retail figures, and this artwork style was maintained through to the end of the Japanese Generation 1 run in 1992. In some (but not all) instances where a toy was released in different colors than the Hasbro release, the Hasbro artwork was simply reused with the appropriate modifications, such as Quickswitch and Sixknight.
Back of the box art
Hasbro
For the first five years, the boxed toys of Generation 1 also featured hand-painted, mural-like artwork depicting that year's toyline engaged in battle.
Compared to the fiction which developed around the toys, these paintings often feature some rather surreal elements. Multiples of the same character are shown (sometimes to depict movement, and possibly a result of the Transformers toys' original fictional origin as piloted mecha), and cars are seen to fly through space. Occasional off-model characters appear as well, such as a red Tracks or a strange-looking Broadside.
The original 1984 painting by David Schleinkofer showed the Transformers battling in deep space. The 1985 toy assortment was shown fighting in Earth orbit, with the planet sustaining some massive damage below them. In 1986, they were on the barren surface of a planet, centered around Metroplex. (1985 and 1986's were painted by Jeffrey Mangiat.) The 1987 battle was once again in deep space, with Fortress Maximus and Scorponok as the clear centerpieces; 1988 was likewise set in deep space.
With the proliferation of Pretenders and Micromaster bases in 1989, the standardized back-of-box art was replaced with a series of rather crude and cartoonish hand-drawn scenes, each showing a few of that year's characters engaged in combat, typically the toy type (Micromaster base, Mega Pretender, etc.) that was being sold in the package. The line art for these illustrations was apparently all done by Richard Marcej [2], who was creditably also responsible for much of the higher-quality character art from earlier years.
The Action Masters in 1990 did get a more traditional mural painting, showing a battle in low Earth orbit, complete with ground vehicles flying through space.
With the Vintage G1 line, the classic box styles returned, including the back of box mural art.
TakaraTomy
For the back-of-box artwork Takara initially reused the 1984 painting for their initial releases in 1985, but later switched to a heavily modified version of Hasbro's 1985 back-of-box art, altered to include several more characters, most prominently Devastator, while at the same time totally removing the non-Takara toys such as the Deluxe Insecticons and Jetfire. For 1986, Takara had a totally unique piece of artwork in a similar style spotlighting the 1986 Scramble City combiner and citybot toys, in addition to also reusing Jeffrey Mangiat's 1986 mural on other boxes. For 1987 and 1988, Takara again used the same back-of-box artwork as Hasbro, but 1989's Victory line by necessity used a totally new piece of artwork spotlighting the unique-to-Japan toys. Zone did away with a fully painted battlescene, the back of the boxes simply including photographs of the main line. 1991's Return of Convoy on the other hand had two new battlescenes painted for the line, one spotlighting Sky Garry and Grandus, and the other one appropriately featuring Star Convoy. Operation Combination, like Zone, retained the painted character artwork but did not feature a new battlescene.
Generation 2
Generation 2 featured a combination of retouched (or redrawn-to-look-as-if-it-were-retouched) Generation 1 (obviously for the repainted or retooled Generation 1 toys) and all-new artwork to accompany the new toys. This new artwork was closer in resemblance to the artwork seen in the last years of Generation 1 than the early art.
Some of Generation 2's package art was reproduced on a series of pack-in Real Action Pop-Ups 3-D Transformer Trading Cards.
TakaraTomy (Transformers G-2)
With the reintroduction of Transformers to Japan in 1995, Takara elected to try a new approach by utilizing computer generated models to represent the characters on the packaging instead of painted artwork.
Beast Era
Beast Wars
Beast Wars continued the painted-art standard of Generation 1, though now in a more exaggerated, aggressive style befitting the aesthetics of the age of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by veteran Hasbro artist Doug Hart. Occasional use of the mutant head feature on the early Beast Wars toys led to a particularly dramatic contrast with the more restrained show models.
Three of the largest Beast Wars toys (the Transmetals Depth Charge, Rampage and Optimal Optimus) featured a "schematic" drawing of the toy in robot mode on the back of the box, in blue line-on-black form, alongside a photograph of the actual toy. The drawing had call-outs for such bizarre technical details as "galva-conductors", "terror claws", "space cruiser wings", and "LED smart missile plasma cannons".
The later Transmetal 2 toys Tigerhawk and Megatron omitted the line art and used the toy photo to call out the techno-nonsense. These two toys also featured added box art placed so that the toys, visible through the box's plastic window, appeared to be firing their weapons. Megatron, for example, appeared to have a stream of fire spewing from his dragon head's mouth.
TakaraTomy (Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers)
Takara initially returned to hand drawn artwork for the first several releases of their Beast Wars line in 1997, but rather than repurpose the U.S. artwork for the relevant toys, these were all-new renditions that, where appropriate, were based on the characters' visual appearance in the Beast Wars TV show (Optimus Primal having a mouth, for example). Shortly into the line, Takara abandoned the hand drawn artwork and returned to computer generated models, which were done in a style reminiscent of the Beast Wars animated series.
Takara continued this package style through the two subsequent "Beast" lines, Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo, with only the Autorollers using traditional-style box art. Beast Wars Metals abandoned character artwork on the boxes altogether in favor of larger windows to show off the toys.
Beast Machines
The Beast Machines toyline was the first to break with the tradition established by Generation 1. Most packages featured the CGI-rendered robot mode of Cheetor, rather than the character whose toy was being sold. For the "The Battle for the Sparks" subline, Cheetor was replaced by Optimus Primal in beast mode. The "Dinobots" subline featured T-Wrecks in beast mode.
The CGI model of boxed characters who appeared on the show, such as Tankor, appeared on the back of their boxes alongside their profile.
Machine Wars
Machine Wars was composed of mostly repaints/retools from the 1992 European Generation 1 toyline and previously unused Generation 2. The only packaging art created for the line was the art for Hubcap and Hoist. Sandstorm, Soundwave and Starscream used art from the Generation 1 toys they were redecoes of. The Basic jets used recolored Predator art, and Prowl and Mirage used Laser Rod Jolt's art. Oddly, Optimus Prime didn't use Thunder Clash's art, but instead used a heavily edited version of Laser Optimus Prime's art. (As a result, Prime's box art indicates that the toy has a mouthplate, which is not the case.)
Robots in Disguise (2001)
The 2001 Robots in Disguise toyline restored individual character portrayals to the front of packages... but these were simply computer-enhanced photographs of the actual toys within, often transformed to varying degrees of accuracy. The Japanese Car Robots releases continued to use the type of CGI boxart used on the Japanese Beast Wars toys.
TakaraTomy (Car Robots)
Car Robots featured new computer-generated artwork on the line's boxed figures, with carded figures simply featuring the toy's corresponding collectors' card (complete with a CG rendition of the character) placed in a window above the figure.
Unicron Trilogy
Armada
With the new Armada toyline and franchise continuity, Hasbro's Transformers packaging returned to hand-drawn character art for the first time since the end of Beast Wars. Drawn by artists from Dreamwave Productions, this art followed a comic book style with modern Photoshop colouring, rather than the hand-painted work of Generation 1.
This art was also reproduced onto a collectible sticker that was included with all Armada toys from the Super-Con size class and upwards.
- The Mini-Con class toys featured a single piece of artwork of one of the Mini-Con team members on the insert tray card
- The Super-Con class toys did not feature artwork directly on the packaging card itself, instead opting to display the collector sticker in the packaging bubble.
- Max-Con, Giga-Con, Super Base and Supreme class toys all featured art directly printed onto the packaging.
TakaraTomy (Legends of the Microns)
The Legends of the Microns toys, much like Generation 1 before it, simply repurposed the artwork as drawn by Dreamwave Productions. Also like later Generation 1 figures, Takara altered the colors of some characters where necessary to reflect their slightly different colors in the Japanese marketplace, and had new artwork done for the Magna Convoy DX Set in a similar style.
Energon
The Energon toyline featured the same style of comic artwork first seen in the Armada line, this time featuring all of the characters included in a toy package where possible (for example, an entire Mini-Con team as opposed to just a single member as seen during Armada). Once again, artists affiliated with Dreamwave Productions provided the artwork. Similarly to Armada, for toys Deluxe class and upwards the packaging art was reproduced on collectible tech spec cards included with paperwork or taped inside the packaging bubble.
TakaraTomy (Super Link)
Consistent with the corresponding animated series, the Super Link toyline utilized CG artwork taken directly from the character models as used on the TV show.
Cybertron
Cybertron's packaging artwork headed in a dramatically different direction to the previous years, dropping the comic book style in favour of focusing on the upper torso of the character while they were in a 'ready to fight' pose, similar to the advertising posters of boxing matches. The artwork was drawn mostly by now-freelance ex-Dreamwave artists, and coloured in a style passably similar to the painted Generation 1/Generation 2 art.
TakaraTomy (Galaxy Force)
As with Super Link before it, Galaxy Force simply used the character's CG models from the accompanying animated series as the character artwork on the boxes. In the cases of non-show characters like Buzzsaw and Runabout, hand-drawn artwork was used instead.
Commemorative Series
The Generation One Commemorative Series series featured a wide range of previously seen art, from the original 1980s packaging art to the Transformers Collection reissue artwork by Hirofumi Ichikawa. Additionally, all-new art by Dreamwave artist/president Pat Lee was commissioned for several of the later reissues, coupled with a few instances of recycled artwork originally drawn by Lee for the covers of Dreamwave's first Generation 1 mini-series.
Universe (2003)
Universe packaging art were mostly by the Dreamwave affiliated artists, but while the penciling was of the same general quality and style of the mainline art, the colouring was often much flatter and lacking in depth. Additionally, some toys featured artwork by Hasbro's in-house artists attempting to emulate the then-popular Dreamwave style, to extremely varied results.
Alternators
The Alternators toyline originally featured the same style of full-body artwork seen in the other Transformers toylines at the time, once again by various Dreamwave artists (namely Pat Lee, Don Figueroa, Alex Milne, Joe Ng, Guido Guidi and Marcelo Matere). However, when the packaging style switched to the large plastic bubble/cardboard tray configuration in late 2005, the packaging art style—now entirely drawn by Marcelo Matere—was changed to emulate the focused upper torso style seen in the Cybertron toyline, though the art was coloured more closely to the comic book style.
Classics
Similarly to Robots in Disguise, the Classics toyline was created as a 'filler' line, to plug the gap between the end of Cybertron and the beginning of the 2007 live action movie toyline. As such, Hasbro once again returned to using photographs of the toys instead of actual drawn artwork.
A feature of the packaging was a card on the front that, when moved, revealed one of the toy's modes.
TakaraTomy (Henkei! Henkei!)
Henkei! Henkei! used both toy photography and original art for their packaging art. The first four waves (C-01 to C-06 and D-01 to D-04), plus C-18 Minibot Attack Team and C-19 Minibot Spy Team used simple toy photos of them in robot mode, Skyfire in vehicle mode. The remaining waves had hand-drawn artwork done by artist Naoto Tsushima.
Masterpiece
Masterpiece figures use photographs for their box art, but also have "real" package art on the covers of their instruction booklets and on their included collectible cards.
Robot Heroes
Robot Heroes featured extremely cute super deformed-style artwork of the figures.
Live-action film series
Transformers (2007)
The majority of the "main line" toys from the 2007 movie toyline featured a very exactingly detailed mugshot of the character (seemingly hand-painted), surrounded by technological greeblies. The characters featured in the film appear to use the movie models as a starting point, though there are some difference in coloration and detail.
In Europe, this art was replaced by a photo of the toy in robot mode, which was also used on the rear of the packaging. Some of this art (as well as the packaging design) was also used by several licensed merchandise manufacturers.
The Fast Action Battlers and Cyber Slammers sublines had traditional hand-drawn art, but done in a more rounded, 'cuter' style to fit the younger target age group of the toys.
The Real Gear Robots opted to use a closeup photograph of the toy's upper torso, similarly to Classics, while the Target-exclusive Scout class range of redecos lacked any sort of packaging art.
Revenge of the Fallen
The return to the live-action movie toy line with Revenge of the Fallen sees a return to minimalist character artwork. Instead of the 2007 movie line's head-on, forward-facing headshots, the Revenge of the Fallen toy line uses three-quarter profiles of the head.
Dark of the Moon
Dark of the Moon once again returned to the live-action movie-style minimalist character artwork, all the while taking some cues from the previous 2010 toyline. Instead of the 2009 Revenge of the Fallen line's three-quarter profiled head-shots, most Deluxe-class toys and all Cyberverse playsets now depict a rendered bust-like shot of the character, seen from a slightly upward angle and with the characters staring off into the distance. The Voyager, Leader, and Cyberverse Commander classes have rendered vehicle forms instead, also seen from an angle. The art itself takes a big step forward, with the renders themselves (which were made by Indigo Studios) being ridiculously detailed and shiny, looking almost realistic and being as close to the live-action movie aesthetic as possible. This even applies to some non-film characters, like Space Case and Darksteel, who received incredibly detailed mugshots that make them look like they could plausibly be rendered and easily fit alongside the other robots on film.
Age of Extinction
The Last Knight
Bumblebee
Rise of the Beasts
Animated
The Transformers Animated line predominantly uses character models and promotional images from the actual Transformers Animated cartoon, which is a first for the North American Transformers toyline.
The Deluxe packaging features a large image of the character, showing the bulk of their body and generally in an action pose, on the front of the plastic packaging bubble. A different image is used as a smaller mug shot on the side of the bubble and on the back of the card by their quote, possibly making Animated the first series to give each toy two unique pieces of character package art.
This layout is replicated for the Voyager size-class toys, though obviously the front and side images are printed on exterior cardboard.
Universe (2008)
The all-new Universe sees a return of comic book-style packaging art, with an upper torso drawing of the character printed either on the carded package or the box. To the amusement of all, some of the art also sees a return of the glassy-eyed, slack-jawed expressions first seen during the days of Dreamwave Productions. Artist Marcelo Matere commented on his deviantART page that Hasbro had requested a more static, statue-like depiction for this line.
Transformers (2010)
The secondary-title-less 2010 Transformers line changes the Voyager size class, with all toys in that size now being packaged in robot mode. As a consequence, the package art now depicts each toy in its alternate mode on the front of the packaging, with the robot mode art being placed on the side of the packaging, just above the bio. The Leader-class and Scout-class toys remain packaged in their robot modes, so they get the same treatment, although the small size of the Scout class limits their art to their alternate mode.
Power Core Combiners
The Power Core Combiners are also packaged in robot mode, so the two-packs feature their combined alternate mode/Mini-Con art. The five-packs' package art only depicts the combined robot mode, however.
Generations
The third iteration of the Classics/Universe franchise, the Deluxe-only Transformers: Generations line has two styles of packaging art, reflecting how it's essentially two separate lines connected by name. The first line of Generations toys were done with packaging art similar to Universe's style. However, the robots usually didn't suffer from Dull surprise, and are a fair bit smaller. The second iteration of Generations, released in 2012 as a toyline for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron in all but name, have a much larger render of the respective robot behind the line's title.
Prime Wars Trilogy
Combiner Wars
Titans Return
Power of the Primes
Studio Series
Studio Series boxes up until 2025 (see below) had three images of the character; the front being a render of most of the character's body, the left side showing a bit less of the same render, and the right side zooming in for a close-up of the character's face. The renders used will vary between one from a film's marketing material or an original render created exclusively for the toyline. This may result in the character getting their first render, period; as was the case with examples like Crowbar and Jolt, the latter of whom's render was notably the first high-resolution look at his final character model from Revenge of the Fallen.
For characters who do have a pre-existing render already, and if they have appeared in multiple films, the render will be pulled from the movie the toy is representing. For example, the 2018 Voyager class figure of Optimus Prime uses renders dating back to the 2007 film's release; while his 2018 Leader class figure representing his flight mode from Dark of the Moon uses renders created for that film. There are a few exceptions for characters who didn't receive a new render for a new film and simply didn't receive a new render for Studio Series either; such as Sideswipe, whose initial Dark of the Moon figure uses the renders of him from the Revenge of the Fallen line, while Grindor uses another render of his original body-type's owner Blackout. This practice has also unfortunately shown how much the renders of the War for Cybertron characters like Optimus Prime are showing their age due to being from two console generations ago as of the toy's release, as they look particularly grainy on the right side of the box for the close-up.
Some figures have seen their packaging art renders edited to more accurately reflect their on-screen appearance, such as Jetfire, whose render on the front of the box is new and incorporates the expressive mouth that the concept art (seen on the sides of his box) lacked. The Fallen's packaging art and renders also saw an edit of his concept art render but with the updated face seen in the final film added. Others have rather inexplicable edits; Megatron's 2020 Voyager figure's render has his Revenge of the Fallen head on his 2007 body, while the aforementioned Dark of the Moon Optimus has his wings poorly slapped on behind him. Another oddity came up with 2024's Wheeljack Deluxe, which features his vehicle mode on the front of the box instead of his robot mode; however, 2025 saw further toys such as '86 Galvatron and Hatchet with their vehicle modes on the front of the box, starting an official new trend.
From 2022-2023, starting with Coronation Starscream, the Leader class figures saw the front of their boxes have expansive package art to take advantage of the new window-less format. 2024 would see the return of window packaging. 2025 would see a refresh of the line's packaging with the return of windows, and now having both the character's robot mode and vehicle mode render on the front of the box, sacrificing the render of the robot mode on the right side of the box as a result.
War for Cybertron Trilogy
Siege
Earthrise
Kingdom
Legacy
Evolution
Evolution would feature a large collage that highlighted many of the characters from the first wave of the year. Dominating the center of the art is a close-up of Nemesis that homages the cover of "Rules of Disengagement" that featured the iconic close-up of Tarn, also giving him a highlight since the year saw his first toy being released. At the time of the package art's debut, Nemesis had not been announced yet, but Hasbro specified that the character wasn't Tarn, providing a sneaky hint towards the Titan figure of 2023; her alternate mode is also towards the top right to further foreshadow her. Above her is Armada Optimus Prime, the Commander figure of the year. She is flanked by major releases from the first wave's toys like Armada Hot Shot and Leo Prime, while below her lies a charge of Junkions and Dinobots, representing the Junkion combiner gimmick for the year and the Core class Dinobot series. Also notable towards the top left is a space bridge from the Animated universe, as a way to commemorate Animated Prowl getting a toy and being the first mainline Animated toy since the line's cancellation.
This collage is split in half for each toy box's left side, and can be lined up with another box to form the full art. The front cover of the box is a render of the character's alternate mode, while the right side has a headshot and a full robot mode render for the character.
Aligned
Prime
There were essentially three toylines under the Transformers: Prime banner.
First Edition
The first toyline was "First Edition", a "preview" toyline of sorts which featured package art consisting of touched-up concept art of the cast of Prime.
Robots in Disguise
The "main" toyline was "Robots in Disguise", and used CGI renders of the characters for its package art. For redecoed/retooled characters, (such as Hot Shot, a retool of Bumblebee) the CGI was often modified, featuring different colors, heads, and even poses/angles.
Beast Hunters
The third and final toyline was "Beast Hunters", which still used CGI renders for its package art. A CGI render of Predaking in his dragon mode was featured in some way on all of the packages, and the Deluxe Class and Cyberverse toys lacked individual package art, using only toy stock photos, whereas only the Voyager and Ultimate Class toys continued to use CGI renders.
Robots in Disguise (2015)
Cyberverse
EarthSpark
Around the world
Europe
For a long time, European packaging had featured the same package artwork as the toys' respective North American versions (and, in the case of the European exclusive toys from the early Nineties, its own unique artwork). However, during the last waves of Energon (specifically, beginning with the second wave of the Superion Maximus limbs, Terradive and Windrazor), the package art was replaced with airbrushed stock photos of the toys themselves on European packaging. The same happened with European Alternators packaging starting with Windcharger and Swindle. From then on, European Transformers packaging omitted any artistic renditions of the toys in favor of strictly accurate depictions of the products themselves (at least as "accurate" as Hasbro's early hand-painted/airbrushed prototype stock photography can be).
After the Robot Heroes and Fast Action Battlers from the 2007 Movie toyline had started to feature package art for the European packaging again, this policy was abandoned entirely with the advent of Animated and Universe in 2008, resulting in a full-scale return of character artwork.
No official explanation for these changes has ever been given by Hasbro. The most likely reason is a newly introduced European Union guideline (subsequently implemented into national law) regarding "misleading advertising", which could be interpreted to extend to artistic renditions of products on the packaging, especially in poses not actually possible with the toy. The question, however, is why artistic depictions suddenly became okay again several years later.
Canada and Latin America
The 2008 Universe line also saw a strange twist for the trilingual packaging used by Hasbro for the Canadian and Latin American markets: All the Deluxe Class figures only sport the character art of one "representative" toy per wave (Wave 1: Sunstreaker, Wave 2: Acid Storm, Wave 3: Ironhide) on the front of the card, regardless of which toy actually is in the packaging. (The artwork on the side of the bubble is correct, though.) The Voyager Class toys, meanwhile, feature no character artwork on the front of the box at all.
Collections
Transformers Tapestry
The e-HOBBY New Year Special 2008 Transformers Tapestry is a 750mm x 615mm wall scroll that was released in spring 2008. It featured head and bust shots of the box art of every Transformer released in Japan from 1984 until 1995.
Legacy: The Art of Transformers Packaging
A 296-page art book from IDW Publishing released in fall of 2014 featuring the packaging art of Generation 1 and Generation 2.
Transformers: A Visual History
Published in 2019, this 408-page book collects official Transformers artwork across multiple media. One of its chapters is focused on package art, starting at Generation 1 and continuing through War for Cybertron: Siege.
External links
- Botch's Transformers Box Art Archive - covers Generation 1
- Pyre's Domain - Beast Wars Box Art Archive
