Sticker
Details on a Transformers toy that are not molded, printed, or painted on may be provided by the application of one or more stickers. Generally called labels, peel-and-stick labels, pressure-sensitive decals, or simply decals in polite conversation, none of these terms have achieved the popularity of the simpler vernacular.
These devices are simply a flexible substrate with colors and designs printed on one side, and some sort of gummy glue on the other. Generally they are stuck to a wax-coated protective sheet before use, and often the individual stickers are die-cut from a single sheet of backing while attached to this waxy sheet. Many toys have stickers already applied to them at the manufacturing plant.
Stickers were abundant throughout the first decade of the Transformers franchise, but since then have been all but totally replaced with other detailing methods.
Use in Transformers
Generation 1
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As the original line lost retail steam around the globe, cost-saving measures went into effect, and pper decals became more prevalent.
Generation 2
As the first year of Generation 2 in the US was almost wholly recycled molds, stickers were still the norm. The concurrent molds from the European line (which were often released in both the prior-year's packaging style and under the new Generation 2 brand) kept stickers as well, both factory-applied and on separate sticker sheets. Most new-mold toys from this year used foil stickers (the Color Changers/Aquaspeeders/Stormtroopers, the Axelerators and Skyscorchers,) though others (tank Megatron, the Lightformers, Trakkons and Obliterators) kept with thick paper, thankfully using stronger adhesives than the Japanese paper-decal toys just a few years prior.
As the line entered its second year though, the apply-your-own separate sticker sheets vanished almost completely. Most toys still used factory-applied paper decals for more intricate detailing, typically for rally deco and text, but paint operations and tampographs became more and more commonplace. Even the recycled Generation 1 Aerialbot and Combaticon toys lacked separate sticker sheets (as did the ultimately-unreleased Protectobots and Stunticons). By 1995, many toys had eschewed sticker detailing altogether.
The only exception to the "no separate sticker sheet" rule in the US line from 1994 until Generation 2's end is Laser Optimus Prime, 1995's big-ticket item, which also featured a lot of "random robot-mode tech greeblies" sticker detailing that called back to the early days of the line. Japan also brought back separate sticker sheets, though in a much more low-key manner; their releases of the Autobot Cyberjets each came with a separate transparent-plastic sheet full of extra detailing, including "battle damage" markings. It appears, however, that no instructions were given as to where on the toy these decals were supposed to go. You could take a few educated guesses, but still.
Beast Wars
In 1996, the rounded, organic, heavy-sculpted-detail styling of the Beast Wars toys made even factory-applied stickers ridiculously impractical for detailing purposes. Paint operations became the norm, and sticker detailing all but disappeared from new-mold toys since then. In the second year of Beast Wars, the toys gained a very subtle sticker addition; the "energon chip", a tiny, often-hidden heat-reactive sticker that would reveal the robot's allegiance, bringing back the classic "rubsign" gimmick from Generation 1. These stickers stuck (ha ha) with the line up through the third year, but were replaced by the snazzier-looking "spark crystals" of the Transmetal 2s.
Stickers made a very brief comeback in the super-short 1997 Machine Wars sub-series, liberally mixing painted details with decals. The Basic-sized figures had factory-applied paper stickers only, while the larger boxed toys retained apply-your-own paper sticker sheets, modified from the original iterations of the toys.
Japan would once again let stickers linger a bit longer with their unique releases. Beast Wars II made ample use of molds developed for Generation 2, resulting in a fair amount of factory-applied sitckers on Megastorm, Starscream and BB. In 1999, Metals Jaguar not only had a factory-applied sticker inside an opening chest compartment (revealing a Predacon faction symbol), but also the first separate sticker sheet in a Transformers toy since 1995. This foil sticker sheet featured two replacement "viewscreen" images for the chest-sticker (Generation 1 Megatron's head, and the classic Decepticon insignia on a purple grid background) as well as two Predacon symbols and two Decepticon symbols to be placed on his biceps as you wish. Mind, due to the rounded biceps, they don't really stay on well. The redeco of this toy, BotCon 2001's Transmetal Tigatron, also had a similar decal sheet.
Beyond the beasts
Despite the general return to toys with more flat planes suitable for stickers once the Beast Era ended, for the most part they have been replaced by paint operations and tampographs. From this point forward, it is far quicker to name the individual toys that do have stickers than to list all the groups that don't.
Most of these have come in the form of convention-exclusive toys, and mostly due to necessity rather than preference. Aside from the aforementioned BotCon 2001 Tigatron, OTFCC 2003's Sideswipe and Sunstreaker had simple block-decals on their roofs, due to the use of white unpaintable plastic as part of their car-mode exteriors, which were supposed to be red and yellow (respectively). BotCon 2006 Thrust had small circular stickers applied to the tops of the screws in his new-mold wings, in order to hide them since they were supposed to be on the underside, but an error placed them on top. And while 2011's Generation 2 "Classics" style Ramjet is not technically a convention toy, being a Transformers Collectors' Club release, it's in the same spirit, and uses factory-applied stickers to replicate a lot of the detailing from the original Generation 2 Ramjet toy.
Stickers used on toys released at "normal" retail are rare nowadays, but do happen from time to time.
The Car Robots/Robots in Disguise toylines (beginning in 2000 in Japan) featured several pieces that were redecoes of older toys and thus included some stickers. Car Robots's Dolrailer and Baldigus had several factory-applied stickers (which were removed from the Hasbro version of the toy, one of several small but significant deco changes made), as did as both versions of Black Convoy / Scourge. The Target-exclusive Dreadwind and Smokejumper set also utilized a traditional peel-off sticker sheet.
2003's Masterpiece Optimus Prime used stickers to put images on the flip-up "communications screens" on his forearms. In the same vein, the older-collector-oriented Alternators/Binaltech line (as well as its spin-offs) would see multiple uses of separate sticker sheets, though the overwhelming majority of them were from Japan. Later releases of the Binaltech blue Tracks came with an optional hood decal based on the flame-deco of his original toy; this sheet was also included without changes (yes, even having Japanese text) with Alternators Swerve, making that rarely-spotted toy all the more desirable to collectors. Binaltech Skids lost the Hasbro version's flame tampographs, but toy came with a sticker sheet with the flames, a set of stripes resembling those from his original toy (Takara slavish to 1985? Noooooooo!), as well as a Japanese "New Driver" badge for the window. His Binaltech Asterisk redeco, Broadblast, also came with a separate sheet of stickers, including the flames, but also decals to turn him into a "TBN" news-Scion. Finally, the Kiss Players Autorooper came with a sticker sheet full of squad markings, enabling you to have your Autorooper be any of the 48 individual units from the story, not simply the one assigned to Atari Hitotonari, his pack-in "partner". (It is unknown if anyone actually did assemble a full compliment of 48 Autoroopers. And if they did, what the hell they did with the other 47 Ataris. Though 48 Kremzeeks sounds pretty awesome.)
Several of the 2007 movie's Real Gear Robots have factory applied stickers used for display images. These include: Farsight T-20, Hacker X-3, Highline 1070, Longview, Photon T-34, Power Up VT6, Speed Dial 800, Spy Shot 6, Wire Tap V20, and Zoom Out 25X. The Real Gear Robots were originally designed for Cybertron, and several of these displays feature images from that franchise.
In 2011, Hasbro rebranded the gold-packaging Transformers line as "Reveal the Shield", bringing the heat-sensitive rubsigns back for another go, though this time rather than being squares, they were cut in the rough shape of the Autobot insignia.
Modern Generation 1 reissues & redecos
Reissues and redecoes of Generation 1 molds naturally retained their separate decal sheets, but as time went on, more and more began replacing factory-applied stickers with more durable tampographs. The most notable examples are in the reissues and redecoes of the original Sideswipe mold: the rally-deco headlamps on every use of the mold since the "New Year Special" release in 2002. The Takara Micromaster series (also begun in 2002) used nothing but paint operations for the five Micromaster six-teams, often leaving areas once covered by more complex-detail stickers blank and adding entirely new detailing to other areas. However, the final releases in the series, the "DX Micromaster" versions of Multiforce, used factory-applied paper decals for their robot-mode torso detailing.
Pros and cons
A distinct advantage of stickers over paint in general is the ability to do much more intricately-detailed, multicolor detailing for a cheaper price. Many fans also enjoy the simple act of applying stickers, adding an almost personal touch to the toy upon ownership.
But, well... there are some disadvantages to them too. Okay, a lot of disadvantages.
Stickers are a common area for early wear-and-tear, as the designs can be abraded away, leaving ugly residue underneath. (There are many plastic-safe chemicals to quickly remove this munge, but still.) Some toys have stickers meant to be applied to areas all but guaranteed to destroy them by simply transforming the toy, one of the most notorious being the the thigh stickers on the original Generation 1 Hot Rod. While the later Targetmaster Hot Rod used smaller thigh decals, scraping was still a problem. Paper stickers can lose their clear-plastic top-layer, making the paper underneath much more vulnerable to damage, plus they are (obviously) more susceptible to water damage, so no tub-time play!
While the transparent-plastic decals are probably the most resilient to physical damage, they have their own problem, namely that even the color details tend to be semi-transparent, which can lead to the details getting lost should the sticker be applied to darker plastics. Also, any dirt that happens to get under the sticker becomes much more visible, and discoloring has been known to happen. Foil stickers have also been known to simply fade, losing their color details without the sticker below being scraped.
Just how "sticky" a sticker is can also lead to problems, especially when taking into account the materials they're made of and the surfaces they're meant to cover. As noted above, the paper decals used on several toys in the Victory line and beyond in Japan had notoriously weak adhesive, meaning stickers wouldn't stay on terribly well. This was especially problematic with stickers meant to bend around corners or rounded surfaces, as the thickness of the paper made them more likely to come off on one side. (Apparently they've yet to properly solve this problem as the 2004 e-Hobby Detritus toy also suffered from paper-sticker issues). Even foil stickers can have this problem, the most notorious example being the ridiculous "eye" sticker on the original "Seeker"-style jet mold that was supposed to go over the bridge of its nose, though several Diaclone molds wanted you to fold stickers at a 90-degree angle. The original Skids toy does that, plus has the problem of the instructions telling you to place circular stickers over the rounded screw-heads on his shoulders, which actually stick out beyond the background plastic of the shoulders! There's almost no way those are going to stay put, even if you never ever rotate his shoulders outward. Add in that his upper-thigh decals are much too easy to place in a way where they scrape against his crotch-plate when transforming, and you've got the triumvirate of Sticker Placement Annoyances.
And bringing back the "apply it yourself" angle, this often causes minor issues when buying old toys secondhand. More often than not, these stickers were applied without a lot of care by little kids, which mean stickers can end up misaligned or just flat-out in the wrong places. The sometimes-ambiguous instructions don't help.
One complaint about stickers that pops up that is not really inherent to stickers themselves, but still worth noting, is their aesthetic value even when mint. Throughout Generation 1, most of the robot-mode sticker detailing can be best described as multi-colored, utterly random, meaningless "greeblies", though some are worse than others (see the image to the right for a particularly egregious example). While excessive amounts of tech detailing are not necessarily a bad thing, some find them very incongruous with the simpler, blockier designs of the early toys, especially their rainbow of colors and occasionally odd stylistic choices, such as the reel-to-reel tape details on Generation 1 Hot Spot's crotch (which makes the sticker featuring 5-inch floppy disk drives on the original Kup toy, a figure of an "old guy" character, all the funnier). Some fans prefer to omit certain stickers based on looks alone.
All told, it's little wonder why stickers have fallen out of favor with Hasbro and TakaraTomy, as well as most other toymakers, it seems. While paint may not be as intricate (at least, not affordably intricate), such intricacy is rarely called for nowadays, and it is (usually) far more durable and fade-resistant.
Aftermarket replacements
Aftermarket manufacturers have sprung up that supply reproduction stickers. Some are available that were designed and never used on the original toy, and still others are original designs, supplied as improvements, to provide detail not previously found.