The first part of a three part interview with Japanese Transformers designer Takashi Kunihiro has been released, revealing some interesting details behind the hectic design process involved with the Movie toyline, especially for the first one in 2007... with Optimus Prime toys as an example, as he worked on a few of them (from the first one in 2007, to the MPM-04 that came out in 2017).

The interview is in Japanese, so translations were posted here at TFW. Go to that link for more of the commentary on the article, as there are parts that the translator has had to explain or guess.
The other two parts of the interview will be released over the next two weeks.

Part 1: “The 1st Transformers Movie Toy Struggles & Revenge Of The Fallen Optimus Prime(leader class)”

  • For every movie, Takara only has very limited information; 1 drawing from the oblique front of the robot/vehicle modes, 1 drawing diagonally(isometric view?) from the back. This is because sometimes the onscreen models/designs are being worked on up until the last minute, long after the toy design has already been completed. For reoccurring characters with the same design from previous movies, it’s easier but when looking at them frame by frame, their movement is so fast so it’s still a challenge.
  • Kunihiro makes a comparison to old movies with actors in suits like Godzilla where the suit design is finalized before filming. However with Transformers, the CG model for each Transfomer does not need to be complete during filming, it can be finished during filming/post-editing and the CG director might make changes up until the last minute. So to reiterate, when initially designing toys for a Transformers movie line, the design Takara is working off of isn’t necessarily final, they work with limited information. They only see the final design when they get to watch the movie in theaters

Kunihiro talks about DA-15 DOTM Jetwing Optimus:

  • The design was very similar to concept art ... However he laughingly says it looked different in the finished movie.

In relation to concept art differences compared to final designs, Kunihiro mentioned Brawl.

  • He designed deluxe and leader Brawls for the 2007 line
  • He thought Brawl was going to be a big success in the movie since he was going to be made in leader class.
  • He laughs and said in retrospect, he should’ve made Bonecrusher in leader class instead
  • His point was that you never know how things turn out in the movie until the movie is finished

Intriguing tidbits about ROTF leader Optimus:

  • Since ROTF came out only 2 years after the 2007 movie, Kunihiro points out that usually a company could get by, by just rereleasing a previous figure(in this case the 2007 leader Optimus).
  • However it became clear prior to the movie that Jetfire would combine with Optimus(this wasn’t evident from the beginning)
  • Takara then decided to make a new leader Optimus figure
  • Kunihiro sought out to make ROTF leader Optimus more accurate to stand apart from the 2007 leader figure. His reasoning being that a fan wouldn’t want to buy a figure that looks so similar to an existing figure and he himself wouldn’t want to see that.
  • By pursing more movie accuracy, Kunihiro wanted fans to see a figure that looked much different from the 2007 figure.
  • The interviewer mentions that the ROTF leader Optimus is said to transform similar to how Optimus transforms onscreen
  • Kunihiro acknowledges that he has heard that before, but that the transformation similarity just happened by chance
  • He had watched Prime transform onscreen many times but when watching the details, he laughingly says he realized it will be impossible(to design the toy to transform the way Optimus does onscreen).
  • He thought about adding more inbetween to steps the transformation or reproducing the inner mechanical parts(Mech Alive?)

Kunihiro then talks about MPM-04 Optimus Prime

  • Seen as a chance to make a movie Optimus Prime with an accurate transformation
  • Feels that the transformation of MPM04 is based on ROTF leader Optimus(feels at this point, many figures have a similar transformation to to ROTF Optimus too) without the constraint of having to be able to combine with Jetfire.