I expect (reading above) that I'll be in the minority with my thoughts on these... but...
How utterly uninspiring... Jeez why someone at Hasbro can't design anything original is beyond me. Rehashing the vintage cards is literally the most boring and obvious option. Folks with no interest in packaging and design could've put them together, its not clever. I guess it has an element of collectors will love it, but surely collectors want more than the same old cardback design rolled out again with a different figure in the bubble on the surface?!?!
Is it that the customers for this product are so unable to see past the obvious themselves? Is it that there is such a void in art/design at schools that we've grown up to see this level of work as the norm and therefore acceptable, or at times lauded as something its not.. its like the emperors new clothes! :roll:
When Gentle Giant made direct replicas in a large scale, that was at least interesting, but this is just the lowest common denominator of design.
Look around and see the amazing artwork that folk like Mark Daniels, Dan Tearle and Ali Eales create based on vintage toys and characters to understand how much better and more interesting this line could've been. I get that its a 40th anniversary product, but why not be inspired by history instead of just trying to replicate it?!?!?
As someone with an Art & Design education working in Buying I find it all just a little bit depressing...
