* Early G1, with the classic "battle scene" artwork on the back.

* Car Robots

* Korean Galaxy Force - perfect for displaying.

* Alternity

* Prime FE

 

I do agree, but TFPrime NYCC set package was so nice I hesitated for a long time until I opened it  

As a whole series, I like BWII. The individual background is very enjoyable, and the packaging is easy to put the figures back if you want to display them MIB to make the most of those unique background.
Also Takara was crazy spending money on designing and printing different background for each figure, and put it in the individually sized boxes. Gotta love them!

 

Personally, I love the Takara Transformers Collection packaging. They're really well designed, with the packaging just having so much stuff on it, artwork, files, the works, all while doing a great job of showing the toy inside.

 

Ah, packaging. One of the things I love when it's done well. I understand how people couldn't care less about it, but when it's done well it's a thing of beauty. Go read some of Maz's articles on the old Ceiji Diaclone packages or look through his Diaclone articles and notice how much better the overall presentation is when they have the boxes and trays. It's easy to disregard packaging in this age of disposable bubble cards, insidious twist-ties, and oddly-shaped boxes that either have to be destroyed in order to extract the figure, or fall apart after one or two tries to package them back up. Good packaging lets you have a great display in or out of the box, and lets you go back and forth without destroying the package or harming the figure.

All-time favorite: Encore 11 Skywarp and Thundercracker.
I love this box, and I love the fact that they were packaged together. Every aspect of the package is a winner - the box looks stunning. Take the inner tray out of the box and it still looks great. Take the toys out and package the tray back inside the box and it still looks awesome. The inner tray displays everything well and the pieces lock in place. I like the way Takara packaged it with a plastic tray, cover, and then put another plastic tray over that so that the box window has a flat finish. I have had this set since the day the preorder was shipped, and I still like to get it out and just look at it.

Robot Masters Skywarp and Thundercracker is also a great package - G1 style box with the top flap, traditional box art on the back, only the RobotMasters sticker on the top corner to set it apart. Again, the inner packaging is awesome, letting you easily put everything back in place for display. The decepticon pin in the center is a really nice touch too. Modern convenience with the throwback design is all win.

Universe Special Edition (I have Drag Strip and Overkill):
Awesome looking box: check
Flap covering the big display window: check
Awesome box art: check. Love the black-on-black printing
I said: black on black. It's an awesome look that you really appreciate in person
Good use of color, bio, toy photography and line art: check
I once briefly toyed with the idea of trying to find someone to repro this style for all of the classics deluxes. If they had been packaged this way, I would have had a second set to keep MISB. These were a great evolution of the (awesome) Takara bookstyle packages

Of course the Takara masterpiece figures are great packages too, the only way they could be better would be to have a box window, but I also like the solid (and sturdy) box. As mentioned above, the wedge-style MP Starscream and Skywarp boxes were awesome.

FP does a great job with their packages, I especially like the latching clamshells they used with City Commander and Protector.

MMC's Knight Morpher Commander had a very plain and uninspired box, but it was sturdy. The best part is the inner 3-sided clamshell that held the train up, it was almost worthy of displaying like that.

Early Alternity gets honorable mention, the only thing I didn't like were the plastic boxes - they deform easily just sitting there, and after you open the box a few times the flaps don't want to stay closed.

So close yet so far:
Commemorative Series IV Skywarp. They had the right idea - good box, love the flap that opens on the front, love the plastic tray inside. The only problem: Why was the tray made so it has to be reassembled upside down? Everything displays well, but once you open the tray then all the pieces slide around because the lid has all of the molded indentations. Very facepalm-worthy.

Miserable failures:
- TFTM Voyager and Leader boxes. The stupid curve on the box made them hard to open and close without tearing. The inner cardboard tray was a piece of crap. Probably recycled from earlier crappy boxes. After taking the twist-ties off, the toys can no longer be stored in the boxes because there's nothing in the tray for the toy to rest on.

- 6" Titanium series: Makes for a great display on the shelf, as long as you keep them sealed. Weird inner packaging that's hard to preserve, requires twist-ties to keep the figure in, and once it's opened it's hard to put it all back together without the figure falling over. So close, and yet so frustrating. Ironic, for figures that are better off left in robot mode as display pieces never to be transformed.

- Universe Classics 2.0 and Animated Voyager boxes: What the fuck were they tripping on when they decided to make a box without a flat side where you could just slide the figure out. Instead, you have to manage flaps across the angles on the short side of the box. They obviously saw that the TFTM boxes were shit, but didn't put a good enough fix in place. It was nice to see that they fixed that stupidity for RTS and Prime voyager boxes while still retaining the non-orthogonal look.

 

I have to agree on the Korean Galaxy Force stuff. I've gotten a bunch of it and looks fantastic. I also liked the Universe toys that were in the black boxes (Overkill, Dragstrip, OP, Megatron).

The RTS Voyagers packaged in robot mode were nice too, I thought.

 

i agree with this part, but after getting the nycc set, i think i'll leave it sealed, just looks too good,

agreed on the battle tanker packaging, the bookstyle is a favorite packaging

 

Quite frankly, Hasbro's package designers are the tops in the industry as far as I'm concerned. I walk into the toy aisle, and Hasbro's toys are the ones that jump out at me the most, often with customized card graphics for the figures, innovative window bubble designs, their uniquely-shaped boxes, and sharp colours overall.

I felt DotM was a bit of a hiccup in their track record. Kinda lost its sense of identity there, with the white and heavy starfield graphics making it look more like Star Wars packaging.

But then they got right back into form again with the classy Prime FE packaging, and the bold RiD graphics that really makes the character art pop.

 

These were already mentioned but I'll second the TF Prime NYCC set (I still haven't opened mine, it looks really nice in-package!) and Amazon Unicron (also haven't opened, but that's a shelf space issue).

 

Alternity and the first edition Prime voyagers.

 

I love the look and feel of the G1 packaging.

As an entire line though the Cybertron packaging was brillant. Except for the legend figures All of the decepticons faced towards the right in package (with the artwork on the left) while the autobots faced left (with the artwork on the right). I had the entire series in package posted on shelves and peg board and the symmetry is quite pleasing.

Though I've since trimmed down my cybertron collection, they are all still in package and on display. As for the legends figures I was able to score a store display from a store and there's just enough room for each legend figure including the two con exclusive fiugres.