Sticker
From Transformers Wiki
Details on a Transformers toy that are not molded, printed, or painted on may be provided by the application of one or more stickers—also known as labels or decals.
Stickers are a flexible sheet—typically paper or foil—with colors and designs printed on one side and an adhesive substance on the other. Generally they are stuck to a wax-coated protective sheet before use, with the individual stickers being 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 effectively replaced with other detailing methods. Stickers still see some use today, but are mostly relegated to more nostalgic collector-oriented releases, and the occasional "there really is no better cost-effective option".
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Use in Transformers
Generation 1
When the original Transformers toyline debuted in the early/mid 1980s, stickers were already an industry standard for larger toys. Vehicle-heavy action figure lines, like Star Wars and G.I. Joe, made extensive use of stickers on flat surfaces to provide more "realistic" detailing while keeping production costs down. And as larger Transformers toys were already using other cost-saving measures to keep the price reasonable, stickers were used to ramp up the toys' detailing.
For the first several years of the line, shiny foil-based stickers were the norm for smaller details, with paper-based ones covering larger expanses of flat plastic. Most toys had a few stickers that were pre-applied at the factory (notably the big paper decals mentioned prior), supplemented by customer-applied stickers that came on a single sheet. By and large these stickers were used to add tech detailing to the robot modes, with some needing stickers to replicate more complex detailing in their alternate mode, like Soundwave's tape-player-mode text and power light. Rubsigns were introduced shortly after the line's debut: heat-sensitive stickers that changed colors, in this case revealing the robot's true allegiance (and marking the toy as an "official" Transformers brand toy).
As the line slowly ceased to be the unstoppable sales juggernaut of its early years, several cost-saving measures were taken, experimenting with ways of replacing or altering stickers. Several of the last-year Mini-Cassettes switched to detailed tampographs to replace the foil stickers that made up their cassette side/mode. For most of the rest of the line, stickers stuck around (ha), but changes were made to the types of stickers used. Rubsigns were dropped altogether by the line's fifth year, and the Pretenders experimented with clear-plastic stickers that used less paint. This experiment was short-lived though (see "pros and cons" below), and by year six, most new toys had moved to using cheaper, less durable paper-based stickers, which would persist to the end of the line. There were a few standouts, such as the individually-carded Action Masters having foil-like faction symbol stickers, and the water-play-based Aquaspeeders and Stormtroopers of the late European-market line used classic foil stickers (for hopefully obvious reasons), but exceptions from laminated paper decals were rare.
It's important to note that these changes were global, affecting all three major markets (US, Japan, Europe) at the same time.
Generation 2
The first year of Generation 2 in both the US and Europe was almost wholly recycled molds, and thus stickers were still the norm. Virtually all of the new-to-the-US-mold toys, such as the Color Changers, were originally from the prior year's European toyline, which—despite the use of new faction symbols—was still "Generation 1". Some used foil stickers (Aquaspeeders/Stormtroopers, Axelerators and Skyscorchers), while others kept with thick paper (tank Megatron, the Lightformers, Trakkons and Obliterators), albeit with stronger adhesive than the Japanese paper-decal toys just a few years prior.
By the second year of Generation 2, the apply-your-own separate sticker sheets vanished almost completely. Most toys still used factory-applied paper decals, but paint operations and tampographs became more and more commonplace. Even the recycled 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 late Generation 2 exception to the "no separate sticker sheet" rule 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.
Beast Era
Starting in 1996, the rounded and organic sculpting of Beast Wars toys made even factory-applied stickers impractical... plus the toy industry had largely moved on from sticker use in general. That the first year toys eschewed any form of faction symbol on the actual toys also made stickers largely obsolete.
Stickers returned for the line's second year in a familiar form: the "energon chip", a tiny, often-hidden heat-reactive sticker that would reveal the robot's allegiance, bringing back the classic rubsign gimmick. These stickers stuck (ha ha) with the line up through the third year, but were replaced by the snazzier-looking spark crystals of the Transmetals 2.
In Japan, Beast Wars II made ample use of molds developed for Generation 2 in its early Destron releases, resulting in a fair amount of factory-applied paper stickers on toys like Megastorm, and Starscream & 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.
Stickers made a very brief comeback in the short 1997 Machine Wars series. The Basic-sized figures had factory-applied paper stickers, while the larger boxed toys retained apply-your-own paper sticker sheets, as those toys were all redecos of older last-year-of-Generation-1 transitional European toys. In many cases their new sticker sheets yielded unimpressive or confusing results due to the sticker colors not having been properly changed to match the new toy color schemes (i.e. putting a featureless white sticker onto a piece of white plastic of the same size and shape).
Beyond the beasts
Although Transformers began to shift back to predominantly "realistic" modern vehicle modes come the turn of the century, stickers remained rare as advancements in painting and tampographing techniques made the stickers increasingly outdated. Not gone, but very few and far between. 2004's Robots In Disguise Dreadwind and Smokejumper set was quite conspicuous as being the first American Transformers retail release in years to include a customer-applied decal sheet.
The most common use of stickers over the following decades has been in the repeated revivals of the rubsign gimmick, in lines like 2006's Classics and the 2010 Transformers series's Reveal the Shield subline. 2015's Robots in Disguise line had a similar sticker-based faction symbol gimmick, where each toy in the line had a sticker with a unique circular code surrounding the character's faction symbol, which unlocked them in the mobile game (now defunct); the Takara Adventure version of the line had a similar gimmick, only it was used to keep a virtual checklist of toys (also now defunct).
Stickers are often used to give toys a level of fine detailing that even current tampographing would not be able to provide (at least, for a reasonable cost), such as on "video screens" like the ones on 2003's Masterpiece Optimus Prime's flip-up forearm communications screens. Numerous Real Gear Robots who transform into mobile phones, camcorders, handheld video game consoles and the like also make use of big chunky stickers for their on-screen visuals, as do the "spy tablet" modes of various former-cassette characters in the Titans Return toyline. Rescue Roy and the other 1-2-3 Transformers toys use stickers for their detailed department badges and such, a slightly odd choice for a line of Tonka "tough play" style toys for the younger set.
On occasion, stickers are used to cover areas of unpaintable plastic that would end up unsightly in one mode or the other, such as on the 2003 Official Transformers Collectors' Convention exclusives Sidewsipe and Sunstreaker, whose white plastics left a big patch of white on the roof of their red and yellow car modes.
In more collector-oriented lines, sticker sheets were sometimes included with some toys to bring back that old nostalgic "finalize/customize your toy" feel. The Takara Binaltech line (their name for Alternators) and its spin-offs had several toys with additional sticker sheets: most notable is the Kiss Players army-builder bot Autorooper, which came with a sticker sheet full of squad markings, enabling you to have your Autorooper be any of the forty-eight individual units from the story, not simply the one assigned to Atari Hitotonari, its pack-in partner. (It is unknown if anyone actually did assemble a full complement of Autoroopers. And if they did, what the hell they did with the other forty-seven Ataris. Though forty-eight Kremzeeks sound pretty awesome.) Takara's version of the Prime toyline actually removed much of the painted detailing of the Hasbro versions and replaced them with customer-applied sticker sheets, as part of the line's Arms Micron gimmick, where each toy also came with an unassembled (and unpainted) Mini-Con still on a sprue—making the whole purchase more akin to buying and finishing a model kit. The Yokohama Convoy giveaway toy has odd plastic colours because a separately-distributed sticker sheet is meant to complete a Nemesis Prime-inspired deco, with transparent windows. BotCon returned to the customer-applied-sticker well often, mainly with the customization class exclusives, but they offered sheets for numerous other toys in their last year of operation.
Strangely, the TakaraTomy release of Fall of Cybertron Vortex came with a pre-applied Decepticon sticker. In the Thrilling 30 subline of Generations, customer-applied sticker sheets were included with Whirl and Roadbuster, and more notably with the Titan Class Metroplex toy, which used over one hundred customer-applied stickers for detail to accentuate his bigness—presumably because doing all those fine details in paint would have skyrocketed the budget of this already-expensive figure. Later Titan Class toys Fortress Maximus and Trypticon had similar sheets packed in as well. Exclusively in Asian markets, similar sheets were individually sold to add new details to Combiner Wars Devastator, Superion, Menasor, Defensor, and Optimus Maximus, as well as the first two waves of Deluxes and Voyagers from Titans Return. The Titans Return and Power of the Primes toylines also featured factory-applied foil stickers on numerous larger Voyager and Leader Class figures... which actually did not go over well with fans (see "pros and cons" below), leading to stickers being mostly abandoned once more. Optional sticker sheets were included with the exclusive Generations Selects Galvatron and Cyclonus to add Generation 1 toy detailing.
Hasbro's reissues of the Prime Arms Micron toys for the accompanying cartoons tenth anniversary came with sticker sheets similar to the original.
Modern Generation 1 reissues and 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 have been tampographs.
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. 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 examples being the thigh stickers on the original Generation 1 Hot Rod. Paper stickers can lose their clear-plastic top-layer, making the paper underneath much more vulnerable to damage and moisture.
While clear-plastic decals—such as those of the Pretender era—are probably the most resilient to physical damage, the printed details tend to be semi-transparent, getting lost against darker plastics underneath. Plus, any dirt that happens to get under the sticker becomes much more visible! Clear stickers have also been known to discolor over time. Foil stickers have also been known to simply fade, losing their color details without the sticker below being scraped.
Sometimes, stickers just aren't sticky enough—which is especially problematic with stickers meant to bend around curves or be folded over corners. Several Diaclone molds required such gymnastics, as with the eye sticker on the original Seeker jet mold folding over the bridge of the nose, or with Skids' shoulder stickers being placed directly on rounded screw-heads. The paper decals used on some toys in the Victory line and beyond in Japan had notoriously weak adhesive.
When buying toys secondhand, it's a lottery as to whether the previous owners—kids or adults—placed the stickers correctly. With G1 toys, sticker sheets often underwent changes during the toys' development that resulted in instructions suggesting placement of stickers in areas they weren't designed for, often in contrast to toy samples or package art. Drag Strip has several stickers' worth of art left totally uncut and unusable on the sticker sheet, apparently having been dropped from the toy. Meanwhile Snarl has an Autobot symbol that is supposed to be placed in the middle of his dinosaur head... which splits in half in order to transform, necessitating owners either place the sticker asymmetrically on the toy, or cut it in half and apply each half themselves. If stickers are applied at the factory, it's totally out of your hands—you might open a brand new toy to find the stickers wrinkled or misaligned. Even if the placement is correct, the die-cutting might not line up with the detail printed on the sticker sheet, resulting in stickers that appear mis-placed.
Sometimes, fans just prefer to leave off the stickers for aesthetic reasons; the simplified character models of the Sunbow cartoon would usually omit the technological details, which were often incongruous with the simple, blocky designs of those early toys anyway.
Aftermarket replacements
Aftermarket manufacturers supply reproduction sticker sets. These can be used to replace missing or damaged vintage specimens; or to add all-new detail (perhaps more fiction-accurate or to better resemble real-world alternate modes); or to repurpose a toy as a completely different character.
Notes
Foreign names
- Japanese: seal (シール shīru)
