Japanese website interview with TakTom designer Hasui Shogo on MP13 Soundwave

@DIME

With my very limited Japanese and the help of google I gathered some interesting comments by Hasui in this article:

-designing the cassette minions was a big challenge, as minimum plastic thickness where practical and smallest joint available had to be used due to size restriction. There were always 2-3 designs being developed at the same time. With Laserbeak there were 10 and none of them made it to the final product.

-Ideally he thought the Lamborghinis could be at the 10000 yen price point (so there would be more budget at his disposal). But it was decided to be priced at 5800 yen maximum as it would be easier for collectors to collect less known characters.

-This year we will hopefully see 2 large-sized and 2 smaller-sized Masterpiece products. Though there are already candidates, he personally wants to do Jazz and Combaticons(Combaticons mentioned again). And he really wants to do Ultra Magnus, badly.


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Looks like a very insightful piece. Hopefully someone would do a full/proper translation.:D

Some great information there Doublespy, thanks for the translation! Hope that Jazz and Ultra Magnus come to fruition!

Cheers for making this article known Doublespy :D; I've passed it along to SydneyY who often does a heap of Translation work (Along with others) over at TFW, so hopefully word will spread at least & we can get some more attention to the article. ;):cool:

Oh I need an MP Jazz!!!1!1!!! :eek::D

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Originally Posted by doublespy

-This year we will hopefully see 2 large-sized and 2 smaller-sized Masterpiece products. Though there are already candidates, he personally wants to do Jazz and Combaticons(Combaticons mentioned again). And he really wants to do Ultra Magnus, badly.

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I want them to do an Ultra Magnus, badly. But all of those would be awesome. An MP combiner would absolutely rock my socks off. But yeah, Magus if definately top of the list

Ah great stuff! Thanks for sharing doublespy. Ultra Magnus, Combaticons and Jazz are an awesome lineup for 2013. Just hope Magnus is next!

The prospect of masterpiece combiners has just drastically reduced any interest I might have had with third party combiners.

and an MP Jazz. saweeet

I wouldn't mind a Jazz.;):)
Combaticons would be pure gold though. He'd be humongous! :eek::cool:

I dream of Jazz, but can they actually get the Porsche license? I thought it was off limits for war toys.

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Originally Posted by Lord_Zed

I dream of Jazz, but can they actually get the Porsche license? I thought it was off limits for war toys.

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It should be worth noting that the same reason has been given for Bumblebee not being a VW anymore. However, The Volkswagen Group also own Lamborghini as well as Porsche and look what we got recently with Lambor.

A MP Combaticon set would be pricey! If they're the same price point as most MP these days, we're looking at approx. $300 for the lot :eek:

Lambo is still its own company, even if they are owned by VW. They themselves still make the choices. :cool:

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Originally Posted by Bidoofdude

Lambo is still its own company, even if they are owned by VW. They themselves still make the choices. :cool:

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This is true. However VW being the parent company would still set policy for Lamborghini and Porche. An example of how this would affect them is the Audi R8. Rather than let Audi develop their own engines for the R8 (Audi really wanted to) VW dictated that they use Lamborghini engines to save cash. Now whether or not a company develops engines for their car in-house or sources them externally is usually up to the the manufacturer themselves. If they have the budget then they can if they want. However VW stepped in and set a policy of using Lambo engines for 2 reasons: one is cost. While Audi had the budget, in VW opinion that money could be better spent elsewhere. 2nd reason is quality. Audi make quality engines. No doubt there, but Lamborghini also makes quality engines. Which would fit the R8 perfectly (Since it is based off the Gallardo platform). So not only are they saving development costs, they are putting a well known engine into an (at the time) unknown car. Instant street cred.

Of course this was all amusing because the Lambo V10s kept overheating in the R8 during hard testing and caught on fire. Melting the car (as shown below). So they ended up developing an in-house V8 anyway.:) Later they solved the V10 issue (but not before quite a few were apparently converted into very expensive puddles of aluminum. :eek:)

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...1DB04742B5.jpg

So what was my point again………

Oh yes. Even though Porche and Lamborghini are still their own companies and make their own decisions, every now and then the parent company can (and will) dictate a direction those companies must take. While we have gotten licensed TFs from Lambo, it does not necessarily mean that we will get them from Porche or VW. There may be factors that we are not aware of. And how do you know that Porche want to hand out a license? They may feel the same as VW supposedly does.

But in the end this is all speculation. I have no idea what MPs we may or may not get. But I REALLY want an MP Jazz.

End of my barely intelligible ramble. :)

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Originally Posted by Trent

*snip*

So what was my point again………

Oh yes. Even though Porche and Lamborghini are still their own companies and make their own decisions, every now and then the parent company can (and will) dictate a direction those companies must take. While we have gotten licensed TFs from Lambo, it does not necessarily mean that we will get them from Porche or VW. There may be factors that we are not aware of. And how do you know that Porche want to hand out a license? They may feel the same as VW supposedly does.

But in the end this is all speculation. I have no idea what MPs we may or may not get. But I REALLY want an MP Jazz.

End of my barely intelligible ramble. :)

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Actually I thought it was quite an interesting history lesson. ;):cool:
I hear you on the MP Jazz though dude, that HAS to happen somehow - So too for Hound & Mirage. :D

For those still interested; SydneyY over at TFW2005 has just posted his translation of the very article that Doublespy brought to our attention :) - Some very interesting details & insight as always. ;):cool:

I love that Shogo Hasui takes note of all the animation errors found throughout the G1 cartoon! :p:D

I believe that during the development of Alternators/Binaltech the first proof of concept was a Porsche Jazz. Porsche refused to give a license.

Darn. No OTCA credit.:( Oh well. At least it's the name SydneyY.:p:D

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Originally Posted by Bidoofdude

Darn. No OTCA credit.:( Oh well. At least it's the name SydneyY.:p:D

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Why would OTCA get any credit dude? :confused:

I mentioned it to SydneyY & he told me that he'd actually read the article back in January, but that he didn't think it'd be of much interest to anyone; looking at the comments in the thread on TFW2005, I'm glad he was wrong. ;):)
(By the way Bidoof: SydneyY is actually an Aussie bloke residing in Sydney :cool:)

Yep. Thought he was an Aussie.
I thought that was found by Doublespy and passed on...:confused:
Woops. I think.:confused:
All good dude.:cool:

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Originally Posted by Bidoofdude

Yep. Thought he was an Aussie.
I thought that was found by Doublespy and passed on...:confused:
Woops. I think.:confused:
All good dude.:cool:

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Hehe, all sweet - what did you think of the article?, anything take your interest specifically? :)

It was alright. Nothing too special, but I'm interested in his ideas for some MPs.:cool:;)

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Originally Posted by Hursticon

For those still interested; SydneyY over at TFW2005 has just posted his translation of the very article that Doublespy brought to our attention :) - Some very interesting details & insight as always. ;):cool:

I love that Shogo Hasui takes note of all the animation errors found throughout the G1 cartoon! :p:D

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Cheers for passing the info along to SydY man. I loved his MP10 interview and I know for a fact that that very tranlation work has converted many people to get MP10.:D

Turns out this was about Soundwave and Sideswipe/Red Alert. I particularly like how he made SW/RA's robot mode taller so the bonnet as chest looks smaller. It is already extremely difficult to keep the external scale accurate in both modes(faithful to cartoon in robot mode and somewhat faithful to real scale with Prime in car mode), and he has to take in consideration of internal scale/proportion as well.

Some liked Kobayashi's MP work better, I on the other hand absolutely prefer Hasui's take. Sadly, from the context in the interview Ultra Manus or Jazz won't happen any time soon...


btw loved that Audi R8 story Trent, and who dosen't love a melted aluminum car?:)

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Originally Posted by 5FDP

A MP Combaticon set would be pricey! If they're the same price point as most MP these days, we're looking at approx. $300 for the lot :eek:

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That wouldn't be outrageous for an MP-quality combiner. A Takara/Fansproject Bruticus would already set you back $260, and they're roughly scout-sized figures. More comparably, TFC's hercules would cost you $500 for a set, and other third-party combiners (TFC's Superion, MMC's Predaking, FansProject's Menasor, etc.) look to be in the same ballpark.

Of course, Takara should be able to make their figures cheaper than what third parties would charge; but if you're in the market for combiner teams, $300 for a Masterpiece combiner isn't a bad deal.

A MP Magnus would be sweet. Didnt get the repainted Prime for that reason. I too hope it comes to fruition.
Though I know this is a long shot in the dark but I would love a MP Superion as he is my favorite.

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Originally Posted by seespotrun

That wouldn't be outrageous for an MP-quality combiner. A Takara/Fansproject Bruticus would already set you back $260, and they're roughly scout-sized figures. More comparably, TFC's hercules would cost you $500 for a set, and other third-party combiners (TFC's Superion, MMC's Predaking, FansProject's Menasor, etc.) look to be in the same ballpark.

Of course, Takara should be able to make their figures cheaper than what third parties would charge; but if you're in the market for combiner teams, $300 for a Masterpiece combiner isn't a bad deal.

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Never said that it wasn't a good deal or outrageous, just pricey. $300 is still $300 regardless of what you're getting for it ;) Anyways, this is all speculation at this point as I like to see what I'm buying before handing over any amount of money.

"To be honest, what I'd love to release most is Ultra Magnus."

woooo! UM for the next MP!