Masakatsu Saito

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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 Beast Wars toyline. He retired in late 2011 citing declining health.

Known Transformers work

Toy deco

Micro Change

Packaging illustration

Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers

Toy design

Generation 1

1988 - Pretenders and Masterforce
Pretenders
Pretender Beasts Godmasters Targetmasters
Cassettes


1989 - More Pretenders and Victory
Pretender Monsters[1] / Dinoforce Classic Pretenders Mega Pretenders Ultra Pretenders Brainmasters
Breastforce

Other


1990 - Action Masters
Action Masters



Action Master Action Blasters Action Master Autobot Vehicles Action Master Decepticon Attack Vehicles Action Master Autobot Armored Convoy


1991 - Action Masters continued
Action Masters
  • Sideswipe
    (w/ Vanguard)
  • Take-Off
    (w/ Screech)
  • Tracks
    (w/ Basher)
    		•  Exo-Suit Action Masters Motorized Exo-Suit Action Masters Action Master Elites


    1992 - Euro-G1 and Operation Combination
    Turbomasters / Road Corps Predators / Jet Corps


    Unreleased
    Action Masters Turbomasters


    1993

    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


    Generation 2

    1994
    Rotor Force Laser Rods Heroes Others


    1995
    Go-Bots Cyberjets Laser Cycles Auto Rollers Leaders


    Unreleased
    Go-Bots Auto Rollers

    Beast Wars

    1996
    Basics
    		Deluxes
    		Megas
    Ultras


    1997
    Basics
    		Deluxes
    		Megas
    Ultra Teams
    		Playsets


    1998 - Transmetals, Fuzors, and Beast Wars II
    Autorollers Cyborg Beasts Others Role Play Playsets & Vehicles

    Fuzors
    Basics Deluxes

    Transmetals
    Deluxes Megas Ultras Supers


    1999 - Transmetals 2 and Beast Wars Neo


    Role play


    Transmetals 2
    Basics Deluxes Megas Ultras
    2000 - Mutants
    Mutants
    Unreleased
    Blentrons Organic triple changers
    • "Gorilla/Eagle Optimus Primal"
    • "Cheetah/Shark Cheetor"
    • "Bull/Crab Rattrap"
    • "Raptor/Cobra Dinobot"

    Machine Wars


    Car Robots / Robots in Disguise (2001)

    Autobot Brothers Build Team Team Bullet Train
  • Railspike
  • Midnight Express
  • Rapid Run
  • Rail Racer
    		•  Others

    Animorphs

    Deluxe Class Super Class

    Armada


    Energon

    Binaltech

    Wave 1 (9-25-2003) Wave 4 (7-16-2004) Wave 9 (12-9-2004) Wave 13 (5-26-2005)


    Research notes
    • 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)

    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:

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Inner robots only, monster shells by Keita Amemiya.
    2. ↑ Designed with Kunio Okawara.
    3. ↑ The concept art included with the Beast Wars Reborn two-pack is credited to Saito by Hisashi Yuki in Generations 2011 Vol 2, p 94.

    Template:!DEFAULTSORT:Saito, Masakatsu !Category: Alternators designers !Category: Animated designers !Category: Beast Era designers !Category: Classics designers !Category: Dark of the Moon designers !Category: Generation 1 designers !Category: Generations 1 packaging artists !Category: Illustrators !Category: Revenge of the Fallen designers !Category: Robots in Disguise (2001) designers !Category: TakaraTomy designers !Category: TakaraTomy packaging artists !Category: Unicron Trilogy designers

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