Yoshiyuki Takani
Yoshiyuki Takani (高荷義之 Takani Yoshiyuki), is a Japanese artist primarily known for providing painted artwork for Japanese model kit packaging. He began his career in the 1960s providing packaging box art for model kits based on real-life military vehicles. Beginning in the 1970s, he transitioned to providing artwork for model kits based on several science-fiction anime series. Notable series he has provided model kit illustrations for include Mobile Suit Gundam, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, and Dancouga.
In the 1980s, he created artwork for the Japanese release of The Transformers: The Movie. His artwork for the film is notable as being the only one of the three major 1980s posters for the film (the others being the US and UK editions) that highlights Hot Rod as a key character.
He also created a painting that was used as one of the DVD covers in Pioneer's release of the original Transformers series that features Megatron, Ravage, what appears to be a coneheaded Starscream and, in a nod to his early work, Brawl.
