Golden Axe Cover Was Very Revealing

I got my Sega Genesis with Sonic The Hedgehog and a few other titles, including a used copy of Altered Beasts. I didn't get Golden Axe till the end of the 90s. My version had the standard 1989 North American cover. I never really researched the games release history until last year. I was extremely surprised to see just how sexy and revealing the Japanese and European box art was. In the scan I found of the Mega Drive version, the speedo donned by AXE BATTLER clearly shows the characters dick head. It's so tight on him I would guess he's cut! :P LOL. I mean wow...if they had this cover here, I would have probably asked my parents for a Genesis in 1989! XD Later images I found make the effect less apparent. Of course I am sure this is just due to the resolution of the scan I found. Still, even the scan of the Japanese version seems to give the impression his dick is visible.

In the scan below of the European cover, the effect is less apparent, but still present in that his crown seems to be pushing through on the right side, due to the shine.

Axe is an amazingly sexy character that made his way into many of my teenage fantasies! XD It's a shame he doesn't look like this in the game. :P

Wish I could find a better scan of the back of the box. This art is so great.

I wonder who the model was here? (And if he ever posed nude! :P )

The Playsation 2 version is supposed to be horrible. Too bad, the art is really sexy. He lacks his speedo. :P

Considering how hot he is here and how popular the game was, I would have hoped to find some decent fan art of him from Japan. I am sure there must be some out there, but all I found at the time was this:

EDIT

Look and you shall find...here are some much better images of the cover and back of the box art I just found.

Fan made Sprites for the 32bit era.

Cover art for the Game Gear RPG game.