griffin
13th July 2009, 01:20 PM
Over at the tfw2005 website (http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/alternators-10/translated-alternity-megatron-story--bio--takara-tomy-staff-interview-168121/), are translations of the bio for Alternity Megatron, and an interview with Designer Hironori Kobayashi, which talks about the development of the Alternity line and their new partnership with Nissan.
Some bits I thought were interesting:
Even though the (figure) size became smaller, the size of shafts and screws are the same, and that limited the amount of the mechanism we could fit into it.
...
As for Alternity Convoy, we wanted to create a robot more refined than Binaltechs. so we decided on the robot design before considering the transforming mechanism. This method is the same as the Movie toys are developed, and more time consuming.
To create a product with a quality level I myself couldn't even imagine, I ended up raising the hurdle so high.
Mr. Hirofumi Ichikawa was in charge of (the robot) design from the early rough sketch to the final design. By our request, he draw the first sketch without considering any transforming mechanism.
During the presentation stage, we chose Jazz temporally because it was easier to explain the concept to Hasbro, and at that stage there still was a possibility of a brand new character. We hadn't even decided on the series title, and it was tentatively called "Binaltech Mini".
...
That brought on the themes of Alternity; "easier transformation" and "better proportion". As for "easier transformation", I tried to anticipate what one would do first when they first had the product in car mode. I imagined they would bend the car body to see where it opened up. It is based on such human engineering (*laughs*).
Unlike the robots who transform in CGI, the emphasis in on the transformation by human hands. I believe that it is how toys should be.
Some bits I thought were interesting:
Even though the (figure) size became smaller, the size of shafts and screws are the same, and that limited the amount of the mechanism we could fit into it.
...
As for Alternity Convoy, we wanted to create a robot more refined than Binaltechs. so we decided on the robot design before considering the transforming mechanism. This method is the same as the Movie toys are developed, and more time consuming.
To create a product with a quality level I myself couldn't even imagine, I ended up raising the hurdle so high.
Mr. Hirofumi Ichikawa was in charge of (the robot) design from the early rough sketch to the final design. By our request, he draw the first sketch without considering any transforming mechanism.
During the presentation stage, we chose Jazz temporally because it was easier to explain the concept to Hasbro, and at that stage there still was a possibility of a brand new character. We hadn't even decided on the series title, and it was tentatively called "Binaltech Mini".
...
That brought on the themes of Alternity; "easier transformation" and "better proportion". As for "easier transformation", I tried to anticipate what one would do first when they first had the product in car mode. I imagined they would bend the car body to see where it opened up. It is based on such human engineering (*laughs*).
Unlike the robots who transform in CGI, the emphasis in on the transformation by human hands. I believe that it is how toys should be.