Ōno Kōjin has long been one of Takara's chief toy engineers. Born on May 11, 1959 in Tokyo, Ōno began working for Takara in 1980. His debut designs were the Diaclone Walk-In Centre and Microman's Acro Saturn. Ōno is responsible for designing numerous Transformer toys including the Diaclone Car Robots, Car Microman, Metroplex, Fortress Maximus, Power Master Optimus Prime, God Jinrai and several unreleased prototypes such as G1 Unicron. Although the process that goes into designing Transformer toys is a team effort, Ōno is credited as being the primary creative force behind the design of the world-famous robots in disguise!

"Firstly, tell us about the introduction of the Transformers"

Transformers was introduced in Japan in 1985. Although it had already been a huge hit in the United States, there was a feeling within Takara that we didn't want Diaclone and Microman to end. I was personally attached to Car Robot, so I was a bit apprehensive. But when I saw the images sent over from the U.S., I had a huge change of heart. The idea had very persuasive power, so I thought, "this can work." After that, the decision came to introduce this line to Japan, and we had to come up with a title. The first title we came up with was Henshin Sentai Transformer ("Transformation Battle Squad Transformers"); it was very direct, but in my opinion it had a very weak impact, so it became Tatakae! Chou Robot Seimeitai Transformer ("Fight! Super Robot Life-form Transformers"). It's certainly a long title, but I thought it was a good title because it discerns the other characters. And so in late June of 1985, we released 24 items; among those, I consider Blitzwing and Astrotrain to be my all time best creations.

"You were also actively involved in media activities like telephone services and fan clubs such as the 'Transformers Station.'"

It wasn't necessary to promote the product any further, but my peripheral involvement with the media really made it feel complete in my heart.

"Then in 1986, new character designs appeared"

In that year, the Scramble gestalt robots left a big impression. Even though these designs for free inter-merging were originally done for Diaclone, they sold really well. After that the TV animé series would change, but even now I think it is a shame that these characters didn't appear in Transformers the Movie. As a last resort, we developed corresponding television commercials and Famicom (8-bit Nintendo) software.

"Would you say that the impact that the "Optimus Prime is Dead!" campaign(1) had, is without parallel?"

Thanks to that, the series was able to safely continue, allowing us the means to introduce the 2010 characters such as Rodimus Prime. I felt that there would be some difficulty in adapting these characters for the Japanese. For example, the rear designs that Hasbro sent over for Kup's car mode that I saw were barely passable. That brings back some pretty twisted memories (laughs). Then I thought of a new sales strategy, which was the "Revenge of the Decepticons" campaign. Decepticon products were then produced with Predaking as the campaign's flagship toy.

"And in 1987, the Japanese animé series was produced and Headmasters were introduced"

I endured a lot of hardship when I made the Headmaster prototypes. The concept has never really been completed. There was an idea floating around tha was, "what if Koutetsu Zeag could be adapted as Transformers?", and it's from there that Headmasters came.

"What would you about the success of Takara's property (Transformers)?"

We made these miniature figures that could become robot heads. It was also well received on Hasbro's end. Although I never thought we'd go as far as developing Fortress Maximus (laughs). However, when we did make Fort Max, we were very proud, because it was something like the biggest robot in the world. In fact, the "Mystery Super Giant Robot Present" prize campaign was run as an investigation of the domestic market.

"In 1988, the introduction of the Pretenders made quite an impact"

At first we were told that we got these pictures from Hasbro, that had these humans and robots and wanted us to make them transform. We were totally stumped (laughs)! We thought of all sorts of things, and ended up with the concept of placing robots inside humanoid shells. Overseas, Landmine was a main item, but feeling that this would have been received with difficulty in Japan, we launched a prize campaign along with our regular sales. So instead of Landmine, we made Metal Hawk as a leader.

"That year, Optimus Prime was revived as Jinrai(2)"

The Jinrai used as a main item overseas was somewhat lacking, so with that in mind I added die-cast and clear plastic parts. From my perspective, because this item's development had already come to an end, I was delighted to be able to retool this toy. At that time, the animé staff had decided to name this character Jinrai and distinguish him from Optimus Prime. It was Kaneda (Masami) who proposed the name "Jinrai." I think that it's fantastic that even though this name is very Japanese, it is acoustically similar to "Optimus Prime."(3) Basically, even now I think there is a feeling of "that was good," in regards to making a Super Optimus Prime.

"In 1989, Japanese characters became the main basis of Transformers Victory"

Produced as an original Japanese protagonistic item, Star Sabre is quite large. You could say that this character was our company's starting point for its series of hero toys. That year the TV animé series ended; and even though toy demand was still good, this became the cause for a weakening in the line's ability to attract new audiences. Hero lines such as and Yūsha X-Kaiser and Ultra Raker were items originally developed for Transformers.

"But then there were new mechanical products such as electromotive walkers sold with videos, which became the Zone and Battlestars lines"

I had this particular thing for automatic transformations, and even had plans to make Dai Atlas electronically transform automatically (laughs). I wanted to have both of Sonic Bomber's arms open up with springs, but the arms kept on popping out during transformation. Dai Atlas was like the previous year's Star Sabre, and I wondered if we could do the electromotive walking gimmick at that price point.. Even now it'd be a fairly difficult call.

"But then in 1992, The Great Merge Operation(4) became the final domestically produced series"

Returning to our roots, there was a concept of focussing on gestalts. The six-vehicle Micromaster gestalts sold extremely well. There were plans to sell a Micromaster gestalt warrior comprised of six dinosaurs called "Six-Zaurer," but it was never realised. Although we had ceased development for our domestic market, we continued development for overseas, and so it cannot be said that the line had ever actually stopped!

"And in 1995, there was an early revival known as Transformers G2"

That's right. Even though G2 had some really good items, it was a bitter battle to generate sales because there was no TV animé. This appeared to be the case overseas as well; the following year saw Beast Wars, where Hasbro was being far more prudent. As in overseas, it was a big hit in Japan, continuing for an additional three years with Second, Neo, Metals and Car Robot. I was thrilled to see that we were able to release Metals theatrically.

"Please tell us what your upcoming plans are"

Currently(5) the line is taking a break, but the Transformers' heritage can still be seen even in Web Diver. Of course I look forward to the time when I can work on new Transformers, so in future, please keep your eyes out for Takara's robot toys!

Translator's Notes:

(1) The campaign was called Convoy ga Shinda! ("Optimus Prime is Dead!")

(2) Although Ginrai is the official spelling for the toy, I have used the more phonetically correct spelling of "Jinrai."

(3) Optimus Prime's Japanese name is Convoy. This has some phonetic similarity with the name Jinrai, mainly because the two syllables of both names end with the same phonemes. Convoy : Jinrai.

(4) Gattaidaisakusen - "Great Merge Operation."

(5) Transformers Generations was published in 2001. During this year, neither Takara nor Hasbro had commissioned any new Transformers to be created, which is why there were no new Transformer moulds anywhere from 2001 until late 2002. Japan continued to reissue G1 Transformers, and Hasbro released their Robots In Disguise line which was essentially repackaged Car Robot figures with a few repainted figures and prototypes from previous line (e.g.: Air Attack Optimus Primal was originally created for Beast Machines). It would not be until Transformers Armada came out that any new Transformer toys were actually made by Mr. Ōno and his team.

Bibliography:

Shimada Kenji, Sakai Naohito & Ōkado Yuta, Transformers Generations, Keibunsha, Tokyo, 2001. p.126

Translation by Goktimus Prime (Kelvin Chan) 2003. You may reproduce this translation for your own web site, but please give proper credit and provide a link to Planet Sabretron (http://beam.to/goktimus)