[TFGF] Galaxy Force/Cybertron Design Info

[Doug Dlin]

Just a quick tidbit--among other things discussed in recent exchanges
with Hirofumi Ichikawa was his level of participation in the designs for
Galaxy Force/Cybertron. He listed the following figures, in the order
they were developed, as the ones for which he did design work:

Optimus Prime/Galaxy Convoy
Vector Prime
Hot Shot/Exillion
Scourge/Flame Convoy
Snarl/Fang Wolf
Undermine/Dinoshout
Leobreaker/Liger Jack
Crosswise/Autovolt
Wing Saber/Sonic Bomber
Primus
Downshift

This confused me a bit, as I recalled Shougo Hasui, one of the Takara
designers present at BC05, being credited with Hot Shot among a few
other toys. Ichikawa-san elaborated that he was responsible for the
final designs. Hasui-san did the basic planning--the
mechanical/internal design and some external design (He's not an
illustrator per se, but he's a very good artist)--while Ichikawa-san did
the final external structural design. Of the above, Hasui-san did the
Takara-end design work for Hot Shot, Scourge, Snarl, Undermine, Wing
Saber and Downshift. Optimus, Vector Prime, Leobreaker, Crosswise and
Primus were handled by Takashi Kunihiro.

He also noted that Leobreaker was originally designed to have an actual
hand, with fingers and a thumb, in arm mode, just like on the show, but
the sharp rise in crude oil (and thus plastic) prices meant they
couldn't retain the design and still meet cost restrictions, so the
original gimmick had to be severely simplified.

I'll be curious to know if this radically (or at least measurably)
alters anyone's opinions of the designs.

Doug Dlin
apcog at hotmail.com

[The Phazer]

I strongly suspected Leobreaker/Ligerjack was supposed to have fingers.
It just seemed too much of a coincidence that his legs were so funky
and the show design was so innaccurate (where Galaxy Force has been
mostly very accurate). It's a shame they weren't able to drop the sound
effect instead, fairly lame as it is.

I'd really like to see a photo with the hardcopy of that - if nothing
else it'd make it easier to tell exactly how they were done with mind
to kitbashing my own. I suppose the only other thing to note is a
congratulations to Ichikawa-san that these are (save perhaps for
Ligerjack who's really compromised by the last minute cost cutting)
really, really excellent toys.

Phazer