Stock photography

Stock photography, often simply referred to as stock photos, is official photography of Transformers toys used by Hasbro and Takara to illustrate toy packaging, catalogs, instructions and toy listings on their their official websites. Hasbro and Takara sometimes use the same stock photos for the same toys, but in many cases, the two companies use different stock photos, often because the toys may not be entirely identical in terms of coloring and details. Stock photos may also be supplied for magazines and other media outlets.

Sometimes stock photos are taken in-house, while in other instances, the job is outsourced to external photo studios. Because of the overall complexity of Transformers toys (as compared to, say, your typical G.I. Joe or Star Wars toys), the photographers have a tendency to photograph the toys in (sometimes glaringly) incorrectly transformed states. Awkward poses are also common.

The toys used for stock photos are often early prototypes that might differ from the final toys. Production samples may also be used for stock photos. Furthermore, Hasbro also have stock photos of the toys in packaging, often including international, multilingual variations.

Kinds of stock photography

Generation 1

Early Generation 1 toys featured plenty of stock photography. Photos of the toy in both robot and alternate mode(s) were printed on both side flaps of the packaging, and a multi-step transformation sequence was printed on the top. In those early years, only combiner giftsets usually featured stock photos on the back of their packaging (and sometimes the components too, in the form of cross-sells), since the back of normal boxed toys' boxes was usually taken up by the back of the box art and the Tech Specs. In addition, larger toys such as Omega Supreme or Fortess Maximus featured additional detail photos of various features and gimmicks of the toy on the box front.

In 1984, many of those photos were also used for the toys' instructions, including the multi-step transformation photos. Since carded toys had their instructions on the back of their cards, carded 1984 toys also featured stock photos on the back of their cards. In 1985, instructions switched to line art renditions of the toys. Furthermore, additional stock photos were taken for official Hasbro catalogs that were included with all of the year's rescpective toys.

In later years, the amount of stock photos was reduced to one photo of each mode, which were used on the packaging as well as in catalogs. In addition, the 1989 Small Pretenders featured cross-sells on the back of their cards, and carded Micromasters depicted stock photos of the included toys on the back of their cards. European Classics combiner team members also depicted the entire team as cross-sells on the back of their packaging.

Many of the toys used for stock photos were early prototypes (or, in some cases, possibly recycled Diaclone production toys): 1984's Bluestreak was consistently depicted in the infamous blue and silver Diaclone color scheme his Transformers incarnation was never available in, 1985's Astrotrain featured extractable arms, a different head and a different color scheme than the final toy, 1988's Powermaster Optimus Prime featured either retractble or sawed off hands in vehicle mode, and a lot of toys were equipped with different weapons than they actually came with.