#Autobot logo how to#
#Autobot logo license#

Since Hasbro's internal marketing department and the Griffin-Bacal agency are credited by Dunsay with developing the Toy Fair materials, and he states that Marvel didn't have input on the aesthetics of the toy line for the first two years, I think we can assume that someone at Hasbro or Griffin-Bacal was responsible for the design of the logo and, at the very least, the Autobot emblem. As such, it seems clear that the logo was conceived as part of this 'rushed' promotional material, if not earlier. It's clear that they needed final art for the toys at an early date - the logo and 'battle scene' art used in the Toy Fair catalog are essentially identical to the versions later used on the toy packaging. Here he's referring to the aesthetics of the toy line, not the comic book or cartoon based on the toys. The same product with two colors was an attempt to make the line look bigger. I don't remember Marvel having anything to say about any aesthetics the first year or so. Some product and color changes were made at that late date. So we were continuing to develop the product after the catalogs and commercials were done. Griffin-Bacal was the marketing agency run by Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal, who handled branding and advertising for many of Hasbro's major toy lines at the time, including Transformers.

#Autobot logo license#

Here he refers to obtaining the license and tooling for Diaclone and Microchange toys from Takara in mid-1983, preparing for industry previews by fall 1983, and preparing for Toy Fair 1984 the following February.

They were printed six months before actual production (for US Toy Fair), and so were commercials. Considering the time constraints, R&D, marketing and Griffin-Bacal did 16 months work in 4-5. Trade previews were in October/November, so we had to rush. Remember: We picked these items up in June and didn't get really working on them till July. George Dunsay, Hasbro's senior VP of research & development at the time, said in an interview: (these photos were archived from an ebay auction of the catalog itself)Īt this point, Hasbro was certainly preparing for the September debut of the Transformers cartoon and comic book, but it seems that the marketing materials for the toys were the first thing produced. To the best of my knowledge, the first use of the Autobot emblem (as well as the Transformers logo, which it was so often used alongside) is in Hasbro's 1984 Toy Fair catalog (distributed in February 1984, at Toy Fair). Griffin-Becal was the Ad Agency at the time, and did create the launch advertising and promotions, but not the Branding and Consumer Packaging. I also commissioned the original artwork for the packaging, which was done with several artists due to the tight turnaround time, and was the creator of the bio card on the back of pack. The original package launched in red for Autobots, and Purple for Deceptions to convey the good versus evil theme. The inspiration for the icons was the actual molded heads in the toy sculptures.

#Autobot logo how to#

I remember getting cartons of the original Takara Packaging (in Japanese) and having to figure out how to transform the toys, and translate that to the American market. CLS&M was a branding and consumer packaging firm, and we were doing a lot of packaging work for Hasbro. I, Wayne Molinare was the original designer of the Transformer Logo, Autobot and Deception Icons, and Packaging for Hasbro.Īt the time I was an Art Director at Coleman, Lipuma, Segal & Morrill (CLS&M) in NYC.