Masakatsu Saito

A herd of unsuspecting Thunderheads wander under the hangry gaze of Unicron in a retrospective painting by Saito of his final and most famous creations, respectively.

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.

Known Transformers work

Toy deco

Micro Change

• Jaguar (pre-Ravage)

Packaging illustration

Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers

• Sixshot

Toy design

Generation 1

1988 - Pretenders and Masterforce

Pretenders Phoenix / Cloudburst Diver / Waverider Lander / Landmine Blood / Bomb-Burst Dauros / Skullgrin Gilmer / Submarauder		Bugly Finback Iguanus Groundbreaker Sky High Splashdown		Pretender Beasts Carnivac Snarler		Godmasters Overlord (w/ Mega & Giga)		Targetmasters Needlenose (w/ Sunbeam & Zigzag) Quake (w/ Tiptop & Heater)
Cassettes Slamdance (Grand Slam & Raindance)

1989 - More Pretenders and Victory

Pretender Monsters / Dinoforce Birdbrain / Rairyu Bristleback / Gairyu Icepick / Goryu Scowl / Doryu Slog / Kakuryu Wildfly / Yokuryu Monstructor / Dinoking		Classic Pretenders Bumblebee Grimlock Jazz Starscream		Mega Pretenders Thunderwing Vroom		Ultra Pretenders Roadblock Skyhammer		Brainmasters Blacker Laster Braver Road Caesar Star Saber
Breastforce Leozack (w/ Lionbreast) Guyhawk (w/ Hawkbreast) Hellbat (w/ Kōmoribreast)		Jallguar (w/ Jaguarbreast) Killbison (w/ Bisonbreast) Drillhorn (w/ Hornbreast)		Liokaiser Deathsaurus (w/ Eaglebreast & Tigerbreast)		Other Greatshot

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
• Hyperdrive (unreleased)

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

Unreleased

• Unused SR-71 Blackbird Autoroller

Beast Wars

• All new items barring Mach Kick, Galvatron, Arcadis

Specific images verified

• Optimus Primal (Bat)
• Optimus Primal (Ape)
• TM1 Optimus Primal
• Optimal Optimus
• Lio Convoy
• Big Convoy
• Cheetor
• Rattrap
• Rhinox
• Dinobot
• Waspinator
• Terrorsaur
• Tarantulas/Blackarachnia
• Megatron (T-rex)
• B'Boom/Apache
• TM2 Megatron
• TM1 Cheetor
• Rampage
• Orchanoch
• Arachnid
• Megatron (Alligator)
• Autojetter
• Tigatron
• Airazor
• Scorponok
• Inferno
• Silverbolt
• TM1 Rattrap
• TM1 Rhinox
• TM1 Airazor
• Depth Charge
• TM2 Blackarachnia
• TM2 Cheetor
• Tigerhawk
• TM1 Megatron
• TM1 Waspinator
• TM1 Tarantulas
• Quickstrike
• Scavenger
• TM2 Dinobot

Abandoned organic triple changer concept

• Gorilla/Eagle Optimus Primal
• Cheetah/Shark Cheetor
• Bull/Crab Rattrap
• Raptor/Cobra Dinobot

Mutants

• Icebird
• Poisonbite
• Soundwave

Machine Wars

• Hoist/Hubcap
• Mirage/Prowl

Car Robots

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

Specific images verified

• Rail Racer

Animorphs

• Tri-Rex (Cassie, Jake and Marko)
• Jake (Tiger)
• Tobias (Hawk)

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 (his final design)

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

While far too numerous to cite individually, this article is sourced from:

• The Generations 2011 Vol 2 feature on Saito commemorating his retirement (p84-95)
• The Beast Wars Reborn Golden Disk
• The Beast Wars feature in Transformers Generations 2017 (p. 69-77)
• The Beast Wars Again feature in Generations 2023 (p. 68-71)

External links

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