Masakatsu Saito

Masakatsu Saito (斎藤まさかつ) 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-Transformer line Micro Change and bounced around the office working on properties such as 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 Western Beast Wars toyline. He retired in late 2011 citing declining health.

GO THROUGH GENS 2017, GENS 2023 AND GOLDEN DISK

Known Transformers work

Toy deco

Micro Change

• Jaguar (pre-Ravage)

Packaging illustration

Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers

• Sixshot

Toy design

Generation 1

1988 - Super-God Masterforce

• Pretenders
  • Lander
  • Pheonix
  • Diver
  • Blood
  • Dauros
  • Gilmer
  • Groundbreaker
  • Sky High
  • Splashdown
  • Iguanus
  • Bugly
  • Finback
• Pretender Beasts
  • Carnivac
  • Snarler
• Overlord
• Grand Slam
• Needlenose
• Quake

Specific images verified

• Overlord
• Pheonix
• Lander
• Diver
• Blood
• Dauros
• Gilmer

1989 - Victory

• Pretender Classics
  • Grimlock
  • Bumblebee
  • Starscream
• Mega Pretenders
  • Vroom
  • Thunderwing
• Ultra Pretenders
  • Skyhammer
  • Roadblock
• Pretender Monsters (shells by Keita Amemiya)
• Star Saber (with Kunio Okawara)
• Road Caesar
• Liokaiser
• Greatshot

Specific images verified

• AM Jazz
• AM Bumblebee
• AM Starscream
• AM Grimlock
• Roadblock
• Star Saber
• Road Caesar
• Greatshot
• Dinoking/Monstructor
• Liokaiser
• Deathsaurus

1990

• All Action Masters

Specific images verified

• AM OP
• AM Jazz
• AM Grimlock
• AM Prowl
• AM Starscream
• AM Megatron
• AM Galvatron
• AM Sharkticon
• AM Omega Supreme (separate from Omega Spreem)

1991

• Action Masters
• Action Master Elites

Specific images verified

• AM Hot Rod
• AM Rodimus Prime
• AM Arcee
• Omega Spreem
• Double Punch

1992

• All new items (Europe)

Specific images verified

• Thunderclash
• Skyquake
• Stalker

1993

• All new items (Europe)

Generation 2

1993

• All new items

1994

• All new items

Specific images verified

• Hero Megatron
• Hero OP
• Dreadwing and Smokescreen

1995

• All new items except Powermasters

Specific images verified

Laser OP

Beast Wars

• All new items barring Mach Kick, Galvatron, Arcadis

Specific images verified

• Convobat
• Optimus Primal (Ape)
• TM1 Optimus Primal
• Optimal Optimus
• Lio Convoy
• Big Convoy

Car Robots

• Build Team
• Train Team
• Car Brothers
• Fire Convoy
• God Magnus
• Gigatron

Specific images verified

• Rail Racer

Armada

• Unicron

Energon

• Rodimus Prime

Binaltech

• All items except Convoy

Specific images verified

• Meister (his favorite)

Cybertron

• Starscream

Henkei! Henkei!/Classics

• Jetfire

Animated

• Optimus Prime
• Lockdown
• Starscream

Device Label

• All items

Revenge of the Fallen

• Jetpower Optimus Prime
  (Optimus Prime and Jetfire)

Dark of the Moon

• Thunderhead

Gallery

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Extended Masakatsu Saito gallery

Notes

• Some of Saito's work outside the Transformers umbrella include the Transformers-adjacent Brave series, the original incarnation of the popular Gridman franchise, and the 90's incarnations of both the pre-GoBot brand Machine Robo and the foundational 1950's scifi franchise 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.

References

• Most of this article comes from the Transformers Generations 2011 Volume 2 feature on Saito commemorating his retirement (p84-95)
• The Beast Wars Reborn Golden Disk
• Beast Wars feature in Transformers Generations 2017 (p. 69-77)

External links

• Masakatsu Saito at Chinese Wikipedia
• We don't know why he's only on Chinese Wikipedia either