Japanese Hobby magazine scans and Arcee designer interview

[griffin]

The latest issue of the Japanese Dengeki Hobby magazine and Figure King magazine have been released, and scans of the Transformers pages have been posted by Robotkingdom and mirrored here.

The designer interview of Hironori Kobayashi who did the Arcee toy, has been translated here.
It is a very interesting read, telling how he got the job at Takara in 1999 with his home-made Arcee toy, which he had entered in the art competition at BotCon Japan 1998.
It also says that he fought to get the design job on Arcee, and that he actually convinced Hasbro to base the design on the original series, and not to be later modified into a Blurr release. (they both had similar alt-modes in the original series... so this would have been a reason for Hasbro to do Arcee if they can re-use the mould)
Unfortunately, that might mean no Generations Blurr toy now.

[Hursticon]

Good old SydneyY

Pretty cool that things have come "Full Circle" for Hironori Kobayashi, as it were, what with designing an Arcee that earnt him a job at TakaraTomy and now he getting to steer Hasbro towards a far more Fan-favoured "G1" Arcee than that of a totally new redesign.

Must've been walking around the office with a smile on his face a year or so ago, that's for sure.

[Bidoofdude]

It's pretty inspiring, how he got onto the team with his built Arcee and gets to create one down the line.

[reillyd]

At the end of the interview there, talking about Arcee there, he hinted at a Headmasters version of her. I would kill for one of those!

[liegeprime]

At the end of the interview there, talking about Arcee there, he hinted at a Headmasters version of her. I would kill for one of those!

whoa, how small would they make the headmaster then.?.. having said that, it would be awesome if they could make it work even if it is a headmaster Daniel... but uhmmm id be standing waaay away from you if this ever happens

Oh so this is the guy who made that very first Arcee they gave away as a prize at Botcon Japan was it? Cool!!! Wish that was mass produced as well.... fitted in really well fro G1.

[Bidoofdude]

Didn't Japan never have a Headmaster Arcee?

[Krayt]

Didn't Japan never have a Headmaster Arcee?

Your double negative is confusing.....

But anyway, headmaster arcee was a US only character, as Rebirth (S4) was scrapped and the Headmasters series ran instead, with the headmasters themselves he bots, not separate entities like in the US

[SuspectimusPrime]

Good on him. Sharing a mould with Blurr would have produced 1-2 sucky toys that don't represent their namesakes.