Fumihiko Akiyama

Japan's answer to George Hamilton.

Fumihiko Akiyama (秋山 文彦 (sometimes 穐山 文彦) Akiyama Fumihiko) is a noted Japanese Transformers fan who has worked on the brand in official capacities for Takara. He was also the chief organizer of the three extant Japanese BotCons.

Akiyama is known to have photographed many toys from his extensive personal collection for the you-cannot-believe-how-awesome-this-is Transformers Generations guidebook, and did same for the spiritual counterpart of that book, Machine Robo Wedge. Moreover, Akiyama assisted Hirofumi Ichikawa to some degree with the Binaltech technical write-ups, supplying him with real-world information on the automobiles into which the Binaltech Transformers converted.

He has a keen interest in foreign toy lines, particularly Dino-Riders and GoBots, the Westernized version of Machine Robo. He has held GoBots panels at both a Japanese toy convention and Iacon One, and published an unofficial but highly informative GoBots fanzine.

The breadth of his self-publishing is actually rather extensive; he has produced many professional-quality Transformers fanzines, including a lavish ten-year retrospective on BotCon.

At BotCon 2004, Akiyama gave a panel on the history of Transformers' predecessors, the Diaclone and Microchange lines.

Works

• Beast Wars Universe - Co-written with Hirofumi Ichikawa