Masakatsu Saito
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Masakatsu Saito (斎藤まさかつ Saitō Masakatsu) was a prolific mechanical designer and illustrator who provided TakaraTomy with concept art for the Transformers brand for nearly twenty years, usually alongside legendary designer Takio Ejima. Coming on to the company in 1982, he started out working on sticker sheets for the pre-Transformers line Micro Change and bounced around the office working on properties such as [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Dunbine|{{#if:||Dunbine}}]] and the Transformers - adjacent Blockman before coming on to the Transformers brand proper around halfway through The Headmasters supplying rough markups for the packaging artist. He was promoted to full-on concept artist for the next year's Super-God Masterforce and just kept going from there, having a hand in the development of wide swathes of TakaraTomy Transformers from the headliners of 1989's Victory all the way through Dark of the Moon. Some of his most noteworthy contributions include Armada Unicron, the Generation 1 Action Master assortment, and, most significantly, pretty much the entire Beast Wars toyline. He retired in late 2011 citing declining health.
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Known Transformers work
[edit]Toy deco
[edit]- Jaguar (pre-Ravage)
Packaging illustration
[edit]Toy design
[edit]1988 - Pretenders and Masterforce
[edit]Pretenders
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Pretender Beasts | Godmasters |  | |||||
| Targetmasters | Cassettes |
| Pretender Monsters<ref>Inner robots only, monster shells by Keita Amemiya.</ref> / Dinoforce | Classic Pretenders | Mega Pretenders / Crossformers | Ultra Pretenders |  | ||||
Brainmasters
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Breastforce
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| Other |
1990 - Action Masters
[edit]Action Masters
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Action Master Action Blasters
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Action Master Autobot Vehicles
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Action Master Decepticon Attack Vehicles | Action Master Autobot Armored Convoy |
1991 - Action Masters continued
[edit]Action Masters
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(w/ Vanguard) (w/ Screech) (w/ Basher) |
Exo-Suit Action Masters | Motorized Exo-Suit Action Masters |  | ||||
| Action Master Elites |
1992 - Euro-G1 and Operation Combination
[edit]| Turbomasters / Road Corps | Predators / Jet Corps |  |
Unreleased
[edit]Action Masters
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Turbomasters |
1993
[edit]The global 1993 production slate consisted of the same toys existing in a sort of superposition of Generation 1 and Generation 2 depending on the market. Don't think about it too hard. Point is, Saito worked on all of the new molds that year.
| Axelerators / Autobot Cars | Skyscorchers / Decepticon Jets | Aquaspeeders / Color Changers | Stormtroopers |  | ||||
| Lightformers | Trakkons | Obliterators | Leader |
1994
[edit]| Rotor Force | Laser Rods | Heroes | Others
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1995
[edit]| Go-Bots | Cyberjets | Laser Cycles |  | |||||
| Auto Rollers | Leaders |
Unreleased
[edit]Go-Bots
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Auto Rollers
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'"flipchangers" |
1996
[edit]| Basics | Deluxes |  | ||||||
Megas
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Ultras |
1997
[edit]| Basics | Deluxes |  | ||||||
| Megas | Ultra Teams | Playsets / MicroVerse |
1998 - Transmetals, Fuzors, and Beast Wars II
[edit]| Autorollers | Cyborg Beasts | Blentrons | Others |  | ||||
| Playsets & Vehicles | Role Play |
| Basics | Deluxes |  |
| Deluxes | Megas | Ultras | Supers |  |
1999 - Transmetals 2 and Beast Wars Neo
[edit] | ||||||||
| Role play |
| Basics | Deluxes | Megas | Ultras |  |
2000 - Mutants
[edit]| Mutants |  |
Unreleased
[edit]| Blentrons | Organic triple changers
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| Deluxe Class | Super Class | Unreleased ("Double beasts") |  |
- Rodimus
- Device Jaguar / Tigatron / Device Cheetus
(2GB thumb drive) - Dinosaurer / Device Grimlock
(optical mouse) - Broad Blast
(USB hub) - Jetpower Optimus Prime
(Jetfire and Optimus Prime) - Thunderhead w/ Major Tungsten (His final design)
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- Some of Saito's work outside the Transformers umbrella include the Transformers-adjacent Brave series, the original incarnation of the popular [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Gridman|{{#if:||Gridman}}]] franchise, and the 90's incarnations of both the pre-GoBot brand [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Machine Robo|{{#if:||Machine Robo}}]] and the foundational 1950's scifi franchise [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Tetsujin 28|{{#if:||Tetsujin 28}}]].
- Saito was baffled when the order came down to design an Action Master Elite from BlackZarak's character model, arguing Western children would surely connect better with his Scorponok form that actually appeared in Western media. He was proven sort-of-correct when the final toy was sold as a different character entirely.
- The Transformers Generations 2011 Vol. 2 feature on Saito commemorating his retirement (p. 84-95)
- The Beast Wars Reborn Golden Disk<ref>The concept art included with the Beast Wars Reborn two-pack is credited to Saito by Hisashi Yuki in Transformers Generations 2011 Vol. 2, p 94.</ref>
- The Beast Wars feature in Transformers Generations 2017 (p. 69-77)
- The Beast Wars Again feature in Transformers Generations 2023 (p. 68-71)
- [[wikipedia:{{#if:zh|zh:}}齋藤正勝|{{#if:Masakatsu Saito at Chinese Wikipedia|Masakatsu Saito at Chinese Wikipedia|齋藤正勝}}]]
- We don't know why he's only on Chinese Wikipedia either.
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| Unreleased |
| Deluxe Class | Voyager Class |  |
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| Human Alliance
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Gallery
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Notes
[edit]References
[edit]While far too numerous to cite individually, this article is sourced from:
Footnotes
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