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Transformers: A Visual History
Celebrating 35 years of rare and iconic TRANSFORMERS imagery, this deluxe limited edition art book will delight fans of all ages!
This deluxe limited edition comes packaged in a beautiful collector’s box with an exclusive variant cover design and five gorgeous and frame-ready prints showcasing art from across the franchise!
One of the world’s most popular franchises, Transformers has been delighting fans since 1984. Now, in this deluxe hardcover celebration, Hasbro reveals behind-the-scenes production sketches, beautifully polished final art, and everything in-between. From the obscure to the iconic, this book features packaging artwork, animation models, video game designs, comic pages, and, for the first time ever, production artwork from all six Paramount live-action films! Lovingly curated by Transformers archivist Jim Sorenson, this is the most comprehensive collection of Transformers imagery ever assembled.
© 2019 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.
This deluxe limited edition comes packaged in a beautiful collector’s box with an exclusive variant cover design and five gorgeous and frame-ready prints showcasing art from across the franchise!
One of the world’s most popular franchises, Transformers has been delighting fans since 1984. Now, in this deluxe hardcover celebration, Hasbro reveals behind-the-scenes production sketches, beautifully polished final art, and everything in-between. From the obscure to the iconic, this book features packaging artwork, animation models, video game designs, comic pages, and, for the first time ever, production artwork from all six Paramount live-action films! Lovingly curated by Transformers archivist Jim Sorenson, this is the most comprehensive collection of Transformers imagery ever assembled.
© 2019 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.
- GenresArtNonfictionTv
408 pages, Hardcover
First published November 12, 2019
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About the author
Jim Sorenson
14 books5 followersJim is a super-secret spy, has a motorcycle, marooned in space, meets Hercules ... or not ...
He's been a long-time fan of science-fiction literature in general and Transformers in particular. His guidebooks are well regarded by the fan communities for their exhaustive attention to detail. Reports of his incarceration in another dimension should be dismissed as the unfounded rumors they are."
He's been a long-time fan of science-fiction literature in general and Transformers in particular. His guidebooks are well regarded by the fan communities for their exhaustive attention to detail. Reports of his incarceration in another dimension should be dismissed as the unfounded rumors they are."
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 9, 2024
I’m missing some designs but overall it’s exactly what I wanted it to be, a source of inspiration and different art styles. For that I really appreciate it and I find that you can’t put it away once you opened it.
April 10, 2024
It's a solid read that looks beautiful on the shelf.
I know a lot about Transformers, but as a relatively new fan, I definitely still learned from this book. The section on toy packaging was especially interesting, since I think that aspect of the franchise's history is easy to overlook while researching now. I also have to give props for forcing me to appreciate the artistry that went into the Bay movies. I may not like them, but a lot of talented people did work on the designs and animation.
However, I couldn't help feeling this book was very shallow. I wish there was more specificity to the choices of illustrations. By focusing on promotional and concept art, the book fails to convey the artistic appeal of my favourite cartoons and comics. It lacks a sense of wonder, that could've been communicated through more focus on specific shots, panels or pages, highlighting the dynamism of the narrative works. Most of the sections ended up repetitive.
There's a general air of celebration and praise, even where it is scarcely deserved, directed towards every Hasbro property discussed in the book. Even with my cursory knowledge of the franchise's history, I scoffed out loud at points. I don't know whether it's the author's choice to make the book strictly about celebration, without discussing any negativity attached to properties with complictaed histories easily accessible on tfwiki. To me, it made the writing feel corporate and soulless in places. In others, the genuine love of the subject was obvious. I know it's a tall order to ask for honest opinions in a promotional book, but I really think it'd make them more effective as a rule. A bit of cheek sprinkled in between all the worship of all things trademark.
Overall, enjoyable, but did not wow me.
I know a lot about Transformers, but as a relatively new fan, I definitely still learned from this book. The section on toy packaging was especially interesting, since I think that aspect of the franchise's history is easy to overlook while researching now. I also have to give props for forcing me to appreciate the artistry that went into the Bay movies. I may not like them, but a lot of talented people did work on the designs and animation.
However, I couldn't help feeling this book was very shallow. I wish there was more specificity to the choices of illustrations. By focusing on promotional and concept art, the book fails to convey the artistic appeal of my favourite cartoons and comics. It lacks a sense of wonder, that could've been communicated through more focus on specific shots, panels or pages, highlighting the dynamism of the narrative works. Most of the sections ended up repetitive.
There's a general air of celebration and praise, even where it is scarcely deserved, directed towards every Hasbro property discussed in the book. Even with my cursory knowledge of the franchise's history, I scoffed out loud at points. I don't know whether it's the author's choice to make the book strictly about celebration, without discussing any negativity attached to properties with complictaed histories easily accessible on tfwiki. To me, it made the writing feel corporate and soulless in places. In others, the genuine love of the subject was obvious. I know it's a tall order to ask for honest opinions in a promotional book, but I really think it'd make them more effective as a rule. A bit of cheek sprinkled in between all the worship of all things trademark.
Overall, enjoyable, but did not wow me.
April 28, 2020
It's a book with pictures - lots of pictures from all over the franchise. In this it excels. Sorenson's writing is fairly short, but there are some interesting tidbits, like how for example the aesthetics of certain aspects (packaging in this case) was influenced by the choice of medium, be it airbrush or gouache. I'd like more of such technical info, but then again, this is not about art, as much as the various visual representations that fans of the franchise have seen since its inception. In this, the book excels.
July 23, 2022
Most impressive.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews