-BA- Beastformers Archeology Topic
Back in the late 80´s it was pretty cool to show your lunchbox during lunch at school especially if you had the Battle Beasts lunchbox and thermos!
During our research into the transparencies and pre-production material from Hasbro we came across quite some information concerning this Battle Beasts lunchbox and thermos so in order to keep the story together this item gets its own topic here. Please visit the -BA- Pre-Production Transparencies / Testprints (HASBRO) topic for the info related to the other items we have found.
The Battle Beasts lunchbox and thermos were manufactured by Aladdin Industries a Nashville, Tennessee, based company that was licensed by Hasbro for the release of this lunchbox. Essentially the Battle Beasts lunchbox was a commisioned piece but Aladdin was lincensed for the production by Hasbro as long as they received a percentage of the profit. Aladdin produced many of these lunchboxes back in the days with all kinds of different subjects related to movies, cartoon, etc. Beside the Battle Beasts they also released lunchboxes from other Hasbro lines like Transformers, G.I. Joe and Jem and they were licensed by Marvel to do lunchboxes for them as well. Lunchboxes were made out of either plastic or metal and the Battle Beasts lunchbox can be found in both materials although the plastic one seems a lot more common. Aladdin sold the lunchbox with thermos in North-America in 1987. The artwork was created in late 1986 or with artwork from that year resulting in the presence of the year 1986 on this set.
Aladdin made their plastic lunchboxes and thermos by simply placing a different sticker onto a standardized lunchbox of any color. For the Battle Beasts lunchbox they chose for the color red. The metal lunchbox was much harder and more expensive to produce in comparisson to the plastic version so in 1987 the last metal lunchboxes were produced by Aladdin and one year later they also stopped the production of the plastic versions resulting in the end of the lunchbox era of the 80´s.
For the lunchbox the original artwork was provided by Hasbro and just as with all the artwork made this started with a concept drawing.
bblunchboxconcept.jpg 131.14K
30 downloads
But in this case its fair to say the the artwork was not specifically made for the lunchbox since the artwork clearly shows all of the artwork which has been used for the packaging by Hasbro as well. So the sticker they made out of this concept drawing was rather a new composition of the existing artwork which was available than a complete new piece that was only made for the lunchbox. And its nice to see that in this case they decided to place the Lion as #1 beasts on the central spot of the composition since on the original packaging cards the Lion was transfered to the backside with the role to explain the 3 different symbols. If you look at the transparancies below, which have been discussed in the other topic, its clear that with these 3 pieces of art the whole sticker was composed.
HASBRO Transparency BB Card Front.jpg 221.42K
33 downloads
HASBRO Transparency BB Logo.jpg 80.11K
24 downloads
HASBRO Transparency BB Pirate Lion.jpeg 119.97K
36 downloads
If you look at the notes on the concept drawing there´s a direct reference to these transparencies. The only one missing is the Water element transparancy wich has been used to provide the Lion transparancy with the water symbol as shown. After the composition was confirmed the next step in the process was creating the negatives and making the testprint, resulting in the following file;
bblunchbox1.jpg 215.41K
56 downloads
This testprint was approved resulting in the sticker that was placed on the lunchbox eventually by Aladdin.
When it comes to the thermos its clear that the artwork here came from another source because the BB figures shown on the thermos originated from the so called Line Art file. This Line Art file was a crucial guide Hasbro worked with to maintain unity and style in the artwork for the whole line. More about this important Line Art file will be shared in a special topic later. (HERE)
Also for the thermos a composition was made resulting in the follwing negative file;
Thermos Negative.jpg 87.61K
53 downloads
From the negative the positive sticker was printed;
Thermos Positive.jpg 87.37K
27 downloads
The color was added and the sticker for the thermos was done.
So far this is all the information we managed to gather concerning this lunchbox and thermos set made produced by Aladdin in 1987.
There are still a few things we´re looking for like what was the original price of this set (plastic and metal) back in 1987, and was the metal lunchbox provided with a sticker as well or not?
Of course any other facts and info related to this set can be shared here as well in order to get the story completed!
CLICK HERE
to go to the Table of Content page
Edited by Beastformers, 06 May 2014 - 03:07 PM.
Answered
