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, 2 and early Beast Wars
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? Early on the instructions were also made up of stock photographs, though by the second year 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.
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 (toyline)|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
When Hasbro's parent company 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. The "improved" look of the photos compared to the actual toys has actually increased, with shiny colors and extensive paint operations that make the actual toys look like a sad disappointment in comparison. In addition, due to their prototype nature, the toys used for these photos may also sportphysical 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 for budget reasons).
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 alternations 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 of the packaging always depicts the "airbrushed prototype" stock photos. 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.
