Stock photography

Yeaaaaah. If only.

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. Sometimes 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, 2 and early Beast Wars (Hasbro)

Direction arrows not included.

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 who could forget the Start>Change>Finish transformation sequence that was printed on the top of the boxes? In 1984, the instructions were also made up of stock photographs, though by 1985, they had switched to line art instructions.

After the instructions shifted to line art stock photography disappeared almost completely from the back of Transformers' boxes. The only exceptions were combiners—who often showed other toys in a cross-sell—and larger scale toys like Omega Supreme or Fortess Maximus, who featured additional detail photos of various features and gimmicks of the toy on the boxes.

Probably the most familiar Transformers stock photography from those early years, though, were the Hasbro catalogs. Just about everyone who got a Transformer with a catalogue can remember pouring over it, examining those photos and trying to decide which toys to talk their parents into getting. The 1984 catalog featured a lot of group shots of the toys on color-neutral (but presumably real) backgrounds; the 1985 catalog, meanwhile, featured many toys in diorama settings with "rocky terrain" backgrounds, while some larger toys were simply superimposed over the catalog's own background.

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. Starting in 1986, the catalogs no longer featured backgrounds, instead depicting the toys superimposed over whatever background the general catalog had. 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.

The Astrotrain toy you never had!

Where it gets tricky with the catalog stock photography is that many of the toys used 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.

Generation 2 featured cross-sells that were group photos of the toys on their packaging, set on "rocky terrain" backgrounds similar to the group photos from the 1985 Generation 1 catalog. 1996 and 1997 Beast Wars toys by Kenner continued to use diorama group photos of the toys for the back of their packaging.

Beast Wars Fuzors until today (Hasbro)

Sadly, the actual toy is not chromed.

When parent company Hasbro reclaimed the control over the Beast Wars toy line from their Kenner subsidiary starting with the Fuzor and Transmetal figures, diorama photos were replaced with isolated images of the toys in both modes superimposed over neutral backgrounds. The toys used for these photos now often were early prototypes which were spray-painted or airbrushed, and heavily retouched in post-production, which resulted in a very glossy look... which was far from representative of the actual toys, which still typically featured flat plastic colors. An exception were toys with vacuum-metallized parts, such as the Transmetals; however, in the long run, they were the exception rather than the rule.

Hasbro continue to use the "airbrushed" prototype photos to this very day. Large photos of each mode are regularly featured on the back (or bottom) of a toy's packaging. The "improved" look of the photos compared to the actual toys has actually increased, with shiny colors and extensive paint operations that make the real toys look like a sad disappointment in comparison. In addition, due to their prototype nature, the toys used for these photos may also sport physical differences from the actual toys, such as the different head sculpts for Movie Deluxe Class Protoform Starscream and Leader Class Megatron (which were based on earlier designs for the movie) or the movable forearm cannons and articulated hands for Revenge of the Fallen Voyager Class Starscream (which got gutted for the final toy due to budget reasons).

Starting with the final waves of Energon and Alternators Windcharger and Swindle, Hasbro used "airbrushed" stock photos of the toys' robot modes instead of the North American toys' package art on European multilingual packaging for undisclosed reasons. Package art has since made a return in Europe with Animated and Universe, however. In addition, starting with the Movie line, Hasbro also use gray-scaled versions of the "airbrushed" stock photos as "cover" images for their instruction sheets, replacing the line art renditions of the toys from previous lines.

Can you guess which version you could actually buy in stores?

In addition to this, Hasbro have also used a second set of stock photos ever since the days of late Beast Wars, which once again included a shot of each mode of the toys, but this time taken from (pre)production samples with minimal alterations in post-production, resulting in a more accurate representation of the actual toys. This set also includes a photo of the toy in sample packaging. Additional photos of international multilingual packaging also exist. Sometimes the photos of the packaging samples are later digitally altered in the case of last-minute changes to the packaging design. For example, two versions of Universe Vector Prime and Inferno's packaging exist, with the background of the "25 years" logo changed to a different color.

The back (or bottom) of the packaging always depicts the "airbrushed prototype" stock photos, as do the accompanying [cross-sell]]s. In other instances, there is no cut-and-dry rule for when which set is used: Hasbro's official website listings for toys sometimes depict airbrushed prototypes, and in other cases, they depict the more realistic production samples. Generally, however, the website tends more towards the latter. Store websites and online retailers are often supplied with both sets. Some eventually replace the "airbrushed" versions with the more accurate samples, others use whatever they get first, and sometimes they even depict both.

Takara stock photos

One of the few fields where Takara is undeniably superior to Hasbro.

Takara generally use different stock photos than Hasbro, especially since their version of a toy often differs from its Hasbro counterpart. Takara's stock photos, usually taken by e-Hobby's parent company Part One Inc., also often depict hand-painted early prototypes that may slightly differ from the final toys, but the photos aren't run through heavy post-production filters, and as a result usually look a lot more representative of the final toys than Hasbro's "airbrushed" photos.

Takara often have additional and/or different stock photos for their own website, online stores (with e-Hobby often getting the biggest bulk) and toy packaging, and occasionally supply Japanese Hobby magazines with even more additional detail photos.

Sometimes Takara and Hasbro uses the same stock photos, especially when the toys are virtually identical. Most Movie and Revenge of the Fallen toys didn't have their own Takara stock photos—instead, Takara just used Hasbro's "airbrushed" photos for online listings. The packaging of those toys was identical to their Hasbro counterparts, save for additional stickers in the front that identified them as Japanese releases.

Problems with stock photos

File:UniverseCheetorHasbroWTF.jpg

WhY mY ShOuLdErS hUrT?

Most Transformers figures are inherently more complex than your average G.I. Joe or Star Wars toys. Because the people who take the stock photos for Hasbro, regardless of whether they're an in-house department or an outsourced external studio, take photos for all of Hasbro's toy lines (which means they may often be working on a tight schedule) and most probably aren't fans, they may encounter problems when trying to transform the toys into their various modes—especially when the early prototypes don't come with instructions. Mistransformed robot modes and the occasional awkward pose are often the result. Although this is understandable to some degree, there are instances where one really has to wonder if the photographers actually stopped to think for a moment if the robot they just took a photo of actually looks like it's correctly transformed and posed. Furthermore, one has to wonder why Hasbro would agree to use some of those photos in official advertising (including the back of the toys' packaging), when they're really bad representation of their products.

For some reason, Takara's stock photos rarely, if ever, feature mistransformations, and the toys are usually also better posed. Either those Japanese photographers are somehow more capable of handling the toys, or Takara simply put more emphasis on "acceptable" product photos.

Yes, Hasbro employs color-blind people. You got a problem with that?

In addition, sometimes the post-production department goes overboard and screws up the hue and saturation settings of the "airbrushed" photos. Early stock photos of Alternators Optimus Prime and Rollbar and Universe Sideswipe provided to online retailers all depicted the toys in various magenta-ish shades rather than red (Prime, Sideswipe) or orange (Rollbar). Sometimes Hasbro later sends out updated versions of those stock photos with corrected hue settings. The back (or bottom) of the toys' packaging usually features the photos with more or less correct hue settings.

Trivia

• It has been suggested that Hasbro's airbrushed, heavily digitally retouched stock photos and their lack of resemblance to anything that will ever realistically be available in toy stores are a totally conscious decision: Since the toy market is heavily competitive, toy companies will want to make their toys as impressive for mass retailers' buying agents as possible. Simply put, Hasbro try to convince Walmart that Cybertron Backstop is the most awesome toy ever by touching up his early promotional photos, which the buying agents will use as a basis for deciding how many units of a toy line's waves they are going to order. Since those buying agents won't care about the differences between the early stock photos and the final toys anymore by the time those toys come out, Hasbro have no problem with providing them with deliberately deceptive renditions of their products.