Talk:Package art

G1 Skywarp

I’ve been comparing the original 3 seekers box art, and Skywarp seems to be the odd man out. His art looks like a mix of reused and new art, the torso is blantantly edited from Thundercracker, just with Skywarp a stickers edited on and his clenched fist is identical to Starscreams but it’s tilited slightly. His legs and the rest of the art seem to be original to Skywarp, but it’s pretty weird none the less. If anyone else picks up on this, tell me your thoughts, because this should definitely be In Skywarps toy section trivia. Sincerely, YourBestPal (talk) 14:50, 5 August 2018 (EDT)

The trick is, Thundercracker and Starscream's package art is reused from the Diaclone toyline, where their blue and grey colour schemes originated. Skywarp's black-and-purple is an original colour scheme created for the Transformers toyline, so Skywarp had new package art created to go along with his toy, which was created using the other two jets' as reference. The parts you mention are very similar but if you overlay them you can see, they're not literally the same art re-edited, they are new drawings. - Chris McFeely (talk) 14:10, 23 August 2018 (EDT)

G2 Box/Card Art Mostly Traced From G1?

I ran across the Powermaster Prime/G2 Hero art trace and it's obvious, but I'm starting to think that maybe most of if not all of the new figure card art was traced from G1 stuff. Am I crazy?

Case in point (comparing G2 instruction lineart to box art here this time):

• Crosshairs -> Turbofire (They match up near perfectly when overlaid in Photoshop, including the weird left leg)
• Blitzwing -> Rapido (Upper body, left leg, and left arm match up in overlay; pay attention to left hand on Rapido- thumb looks so odd because it's obscured on Blitzwing by sword hand guard)
• Skywarp -> Eagle Eye (Again, upper body, legs, left hand. I'm guessing the character's right side got changed to account for placement on the card by the clamshell bubble)

Those are the first few I glanced at in the last few minutes. You can kind of tell what year G1 box art the character seems to have been copied from judging by the proportions and the pose. The awkward poses are 1984-86, the more dynamic but sort of "squatty" poses are from 1987 onwards. --MCRG Again 16:16, 23 February 2010 (EST)

Is it me or does G2 Deluge’s packaging arts pose look like a combination of mirage’s(almost completely) and g1 Optimus prime(left arm)? YourBestPal (talk) 14:43, 5 August 2018 (EDT)

Beast Machines

I think... I theeeeenk... that the only instances of CGI models being used on the packaging were for the Mega toys, and they didn't actually appear on the FRONT of the boxes (Cheetor might've still been there?), but on the BACK, in the vicinity of the bio-card. I know this was definitely the case with Tankor... - Chris McFeely 00:32, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Optimus Prime

I won't argue too hard against replacing a run-of-the-mill Ordinary Joe example with the Shining Icon -- Prime's art was my first thought when I was starting this page -- but I really don't want to see this article become burdened with a ton of Optimus Prime images. Better to stick with a wide variety of characters. Also, I really liked the Rollbar art because it so aptly illustrates the exaggeration inherent in most G1 art; it'd be nice to find a home for it on this page somewhere. -- Repowers 07:05, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

I wanted to use G1 Prime's art because it's the most well known and one of the best 1984 art. Supercon Armada Prime's art is there because it's the only neutral white background packaging art from Armada that I know of on this wiki (the other being Powerlinx Optimus Prime). As for exaggeration, I'd say that's mostly for the first half of G1. During the Masters era and there after, the standard of packaging art was quite high. --FFN 07:28, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Eh. Thunderwing there has about 50 joints, none of which exist on his toys. (Still not as extreme as the Throttlebots, though. At least his toy HAS joints. And feet.) -- Repowers 07:35, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Oh, you mean the art making the character (and thus the toy) look like they have natural joints and articulation that allows the cool posing that toys today can't even dream of doing? --FFN 07:55, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

The movie's "computer-rendered" headshots

Do we really know those are CGI? They could very easily be paintings. --ItsWalky 18:01, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

I was about to say. I'm pretty sure they're paintings. I'm sure the movie bots' headshots use CGI renders as a BASE, but do we really think they made CGI models of allllllll the non-movie bots' noggins? I severely doubt it. --M Sipher 18:09, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, that was just me making an ass-umption, working from memory and without looking too carefully. I'll readily defer to your more artistically-experienced judgment. On close inspection they pretty obviously aren't the movie models. -- Repowers 18:12, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Links from Botch's Site; Question about mirroring

Hey hey, it's Botch. I wanted to mention that I put up a link to this page from the homepage of my Box Art Archive. In truth, I was hoping there was some way that I could mirror an edited version of the contents of this page via a feed of some sort, but I haven't found any information or utility for that yet. My hope was

• Allow people to read the history of TF box/character art without leaving my site
• Advertise this Wiki and encourage people to visit and contribute.

So if anyone has any opinions on all of this, feel free to shout them at me. -- Botch the Crab 02:47, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't think wikia sites have any kind of feed, but I'm not the expert. It's open source, so there's nothing to stop you from reproducing the content on your page in some form or other, but that wouldn't have live updating, of course. Regardless, the link is appreciated! -- Repowers 03:49, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Richard Marcej

This fellow's page shows instruction sheet line art, not package art paintings. I'm gonna guess that he was copying the paintings, rather than vice versa. Anybody got facts to the contrary? -- Repowers 03:49, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Marcej did the line art upon which both the final box art and instruction sheet art were based. The instruction sheet renderings all appear to be simplified versions of Marcej's renderings, and the box art looks like final painted versions (with all the detail). I compared several of the character's instruction sheet art and box art against Marcej's art and what I said above seems universally the case.

As far as 'facts' (beyond what he presents on his site), Marcej even put out a small book of illustrations from his time as a Hasbro package designer. Honestly, based on the line art he's presented, I see no reason to doubt his word that he was at least the penciller/inker for all the box art I credited to him.

There was an interview with him on Seibertron.com that is currently down, but I have asked them to restore it. It's here, working or otherwise. -- Botch the Crab 02:12, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Back of the box changes

Does anyone have any information on the small fixes implemented on some of the art for the back of the boxes? I remember reading about running changes made. For example, removing one of the Hot Rods from a battle scene and recoloring Springer green when he was once brown. I thought Botch's site had a page on it but I can't seem to find it now Riddlerj 13:40, 2 March 2010 (EST)

Another artist name

Apparently we will soon know what John Good drew.--Nevermore 21:12, 10 November 2011 (EST)

DotM & RotF box art artist

Looks like the culprit is Indigo Studios out of Atlanta. Note for later...--MCRG 18:13, 9 January 2012 (EST)

Mark Watts

Hi! This is Botch of the Box Art Archive. I recently received an email from Mark Watts in which he asserts that he did the box art for the 1984 minibots as well as Shockwave and Jetfire. I believe him! I'm going to update his page and this one as well. I know I only have his word, but he was very specific in itemizing the 1984 minibots, as well as Jetfire and Shockwave, the latter of which he posts on his site: http://www.classiccreationsc.com/toy-illustration.html.

P.S. I wanted to use my original Botch the Crab account, but couldn't gain access, so I created a new Botch one. I know, it sucks.--Botch 14:00, 16 June 2012 (EDT)

G1 Missing Art

There's a few characters that are either in low quality or just cannot be found. Examples of this would be almost all of the European exclusive characters as well as a few odd spots like Banzai-Tron (G1) & Skyfall (G1). I know I'm late to this but just couldn't find an answer anywhere as to why this is the case. Doggus Fightus (talk) 17:25, 29 January 2021 (EST)Doggus Fightus

Missing Bumblebee Package Art

I am almost certain that I have physical boxes of the Bumblebee toyline. If someone could help me with getting pictures of them edited for their package art to look...well, presentable, I would be very grateful. Leave a message on my discussion page if you're willing to help! TheActualRealCosmos (talk) 14:40, 4 December 2025 (EST)