Alternate mockup card art of the Micro Autobot Off Road Patrol-as Decepticons

[GoBackaTron]

Recently on ebay a seller put up a TRU flyer from October 20, 1988. It's
got one of the earliest solicitations of Micro Transformers ever and the
packaging shown in it is very different from the production version. I
will try to attach a pic of it here via novaBBS but just in case here's
a little post I wrote about it on FB:

https://www.facebook.com/TheRoboplasticApocalypse/posts/pfbid0FQM5UCMeX1X6X9ZzUGYxBEoQhsP1yik3A9Bwiwn1GGZ4u4PnvFbbcUD4N9AaiWTil

SO basically it's the same overall Micro teams packaging layout-a card
with art of four robots and four toys in alt mode on top of it. But this
mockup is interesting because although the art is of the Off Road
Patrol, here they're depicted in an alternate color scheme with poses
that were not what was used on the final retail release version. Here
they look like Decepticons. The card itself does not use the red Autobot
theme but is more dark, with a black/purple fade transition.

The toys are not actually packaged on the card-there's no bubble or
metallic foil insert like with the production versions. They are not
placed at an angle like the final packaging, and it looks like there's
one member from each team on the card instead of them all being from the
Off Road Patrol.

It's kind of a neat little peek into the process of developing the toys.
We rarely get to see alternate character art and it's kind of lucky that
Toys R Us decided to use it at all. They NEVER EVER used to use
packaging in their ads. They always would shoot the toys loose. It is so
rare to see them use a package and it's extra neat to see that when they
finally did it was something super special.

[Zobovor]

Post by GoBackaTron
It's kind of a neat little peek into the process of developing the toys.
We rarely get to see alternate character art and it's kind of lucky that
Toys R Us decided to use it at all.

Wow, this is super cool. As a kid, I used to religiously scour the
Sunday newspaper advertisements, especially during the Christmas season,
just in the hopes of seeing some Transformers advertising. But, even if
I had spotted this one, I likely wouldn't have been familiar enough with
the Micromasters to realize that it was wrong.

It didn't actually occur to me to start saving them until Transformers:
Generation 2 and TMNT, though, so while I've got a bunch of those saved,
I don't have anything from the G1 era.

The third guy from the left, I kept thinking he had gigantic cylinders
for arms. It took me a second to realize those were his wheels!


Zob (makes you wonder if Hasbro ever paid for box art for unproduced
toys like Arcee or Unicron)

[GoBackaTron]

Post by Zobovor
Wow, this is super cool. As a kid, I used to religiously scour the
Sunday newspaper advertisements, especially during the Christmas season,
just in the hopes of seeing some Transformers advertising.

I used to do it as a kid but my biggest regret is not saving the entire
circulars. I would clip out just the robot parts. My collection ended up
fitting in an envelope. The seller who had this flyer also had 80 other
complete flyers from 87-93 across multiple retail store chains. It was a
fat stack of circulars from the tail end of G1. Just mindblowing.

Post by Zobovor
even if
I had spotted this one, I likely wouldn't have been familiar enough with
the Micromasters to realize that it was wrong.

I knew of this one's existence for a while now because of my microfilm
hobby where I'd search for these ads at the library. But since the
microfilm is always black and white it never occurred to me that the
paint schemes were off. I had always assumed it was just alternate poses
until I finally saw it here in these color auction photos. Wow what a
double whammy. A lot of times I can spot interesting things about the
microfilm scans but you never really know unless you find an image of
the actual ads.

Post by Zobovor
Generation 2 and TMNT, though, so while I've got a bunch of those saved,
I don't have anything from the G1 era.

Even though I saved mine I didn't really have the same toy retail
environment as whoever collected the flyers being sold by this ebay
seller. I grew up mostly with K-Mart and then Lionel Playworld opened up
in my town in '85. We didn't get a TRU until '87, well after robot toys
began to decline. So my collection doesn't have early G1 and nothing
spectacular like the giant spreads stores like Children's Palace or
Zayre or Bradlees would do. But that just means there's been a lot for
me to discover and see that I never knew existed outside of my podunk
town on the edge of Texas.

Post by Zobovor
The third guy from the left, I kept thinking he had gigantic cylinders
for arms. It took me a second to realize those were his wheels!

Yes this is interesting because I am realizing that with the package
art it is not only color but posing that communicates personality and
the difference between hero and villain. In the Decepticon version the
robots have tough guy stances and there's an emphasis on strength and
intimidation. Then in the Autobot versions the physiques are somewhat
slimmed down and the hero poses are more athletic, like 'Look at me I'm
here to save the day!' The Decpticon version poses are more 'Look at me
I'm gonna kick your ass!' The wheels on that one guy are a great example
of this. They go from looking like huge pectoral muscles (Decepticon)
to dainty little shoulders (Autobot).

I think some of the best examples of box art posing establishing
character are the original three Decepticon jets. Those poses are
downright terrifying.

Post by Zobovor
Zob (makes you wonder if Hasbro ever paid for box art for unproduced
toys like Arcee or Unicron)

You always come up with ideas that make me see how cool things can
actually be. I never thought about it but I would guess maybe Unicron
might have been painted seeing how far along the figure got. I don't
know about Arcee. Regardless, if those were ever discovered it would be
some of the most exciting news ever from that time period. I would tend
to think that given it has never shown up, art like that either never
existed, existed and was lost or destroyed, or it does exist and someone
has it and is just not saying anything.

[Optim]

Post by GoBackaTron
Recently on ebay a seller put up a TRU flyer from October 20, 1988. It's
got one of the earliest solicitations of Micro Transformers ever and the
packaging shown in it is very different from the production version. I
will try to attach a pic of it here via novaBBS but just in case here's
https://www.facebook.com/TheRoboplasticApocalypse/posts/pfbid0FQM5UCMeX1X6X9ZzUGYxBEoQhsP1yik3A9Bwiwn1GGZ4u4PnvFbbcUD4N9AaiWTil

Thank you for that find! Why would Hasbro go to the trouble of producing
box art and then not use them? Especially gorgeous box art.

That Toys 'R Us 1988 advertisement ad is amazing. So many toy
advertisements packed in one big page. I love looking at the toys
offerred besides TF in that page, both boys and girls toys. I was into
Nintendo in 1988. I didn't know that Atari was still selling the old
Atari 2600 system. I also didn't know they also had a new computer video
system. The Socrates video system also looks interesting as well as
expensive. Since I never heard of it, I guess it didn't sell well. I'll
be doing a lot of googling on it.

There is so much eye candy in that one page advert. It beats the
"Totally Tubular '80s Toys" book for toy content. I would love to see a
complete compilation of Toys 'R Us adverts book. I would buy it. I love
physical toys and their history.


I am bookmarking your page on Facebook, The Roboplastic Apocalyse. So
much TF goodness there. Why didn't you post them all here on ATT as well
as your Facebook website?

[GoBackaTron]

Post by Optim

Post by GoBackaTron
https://www.facebook.com/TheRoboplasticApocalypse/posts/pfbid0FQM5UCMeX1X6X9ZzUGYxBEoQhsP1yik3A9Bwiwn1GGZ4u4PnvFbbcUD4N9AaiWTil

Thank you for that find! Why would Hasbro go to the trouble of producing
box art and then not use them? Especially gorgeous box art.

That's what I wanna know! In this case I think it was a matter of
balancing out the assortment. They only had three Micro teams they ended
up releasing so the split had to be either two Autobot or two
Decepticon. They may have decided the planes would definitely be
Decepticons and the cars would definitely be Autobots. But the trucks
could have been either so they may have mocked the package art up as
Decepticons first and then changed their minds later. Maybe they figured
good guy trucks would sell better so they went back and redid the art.

For some reason a lot is known about the packaging art process for GI
Joe but I never hear as much information about the process for
Transformers. It seems like Hasbro's art was never treated with much
regard for what it was outside of toy packaging. Like I just found out
that the Tiger Force Duke character art is actually the original Duke
character art just painted over. So Hasbro definitely didn't care what
happened to the art. Heck, they lost the original Optimus Prime package
art painting!

Post by Optim
There is so much eye candy in that one page advert. It beats the
"Totally Tubular '80s Toys" book for toy content. I would love to see a
complete compilation of Toys 'R Us adverts book. I would buy it. I love
physical toys and their history.

Yeah the neat thing about the ads at the time is that they didn't
really know what was going to be popular, the emphasis was just on
pushing what stock was new regardless of manufacturer. So ads would have
all kinds of crazy stuff from all sorts of companies. Nowadays the
digital nostalgia pushers stick with featuring only what has the best
chance of being recognized by the most people. Everybody likes and
remembers Transformers and GI Joe but not so much stuff like Hasbro's
Ninja Warriors or Fisher Price's Purr-Tenders and those get forgotten.

Post by Optim
I am bookmarking your page on Facebook, The Roboplastic Apocalyse. So
much TF goodness there. Why didn't you post them all here on ATT as well
as your Facebook website?

ATT is mostly a text medium. Once in a while if I find something truly
historic or interesting I'll mention it on ATT. But a lot of what I post
on Facebook is very visual in nature and not truly very notable or just
doesn't translate well for the ATT audience.