Full English translation of the Masterpiece interview with Kōjin Ōno from the latest issue of Figure King that talked about Skids, Reboost, Raiden, and Skyfire:
Here is a message from Mr Ono, the legendary toy designer who worked on the latest Masterpiece Skids.
The recent Masterpiece figures are difficult to transform, I feel it's much better to focus on a more mechanical transformation…. For Skids, the starting point was to create a Masterpiece figure which took a different direction and this is very different from the current trend of figures. Another aim was to keep the costs down without affecting the quality. After all the "Transformers" started with the Car Robots and they have such a strong presence especially when these vehicles turn into robots. When thinking of characters yet to receive the MP treatment, Skids the Honda City came to mind. It's true he only appeared twice in the cartoon but the overall look of the City is so attractive; and currently the 80’s is enjoying a resurgence. That's why I decided to take the challenge with Skids, not only to bring out more characters from the cartoon but also to add to the appeal of this car. Back in the day, the City was very popular, sporty and cool. It was fascinating. I used to own a red City R so I’m quite attached to it.
Having designed the Car Robots I’d never have expected to be handed this project however I was determined to do something I was unable to do in the past. The development is being handled by Yuya Onishi’s team. Due to the schedule the design has not been outsourced and has been drawn up completely by Onishi.
The colours chosen respect the animation and the weapons have been designed in a similar fashion. Additionally we wanted to follow the original Car Robot play aspect to allow us to seat the small figures, sold previously in the Masterpiece series, in the driver's seat. Unfortunately the Motocompo is not included. When you talk about the City, you can’t not think about the Motocompo but when Skids became a Transformer the Motocompo was omitted. That's the reason I didn’t include it with this version of Skids. I thought about including it when we would release a Diaclone version.
As development progressed there was a feeling in the team that if we wanted to recreate the City it would have to be “red”. This year is the 40th Anniversary of the City so my boss simply said “Don’t you think we should release two colours simultaneously?”. I thought that was a great idea for car fans to pick up two Masterpieces at the same time; Skids the Transformer and a brand new character who transforms from City to robot, Reboost! As Reboost is a brand new character we had to release it with a little extra which is why the Motocompo is included.
Several Masterpieces are currently being developed at the same time, these include the Trainbots and a brand new Skyfire. Raiden will be of a similar size to the Unite Warriors. I know everyone has been anticipating this release so please stay tuned.
Note that by "Car Robots" he means the original Diaclone molds that became the 1984-1985 Autobot Cars.
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