Koki Yamada

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Revision as of 13:52, 5 July 2025 by IGEBM13 (talk | contribs) (Studio Series: Per Evan in a DM, he did AOE Optimus too)
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Kōki Yamada (山田 康記 Yamada Kōki) is a TakaraTomy designer currently on the Generations mega-brand. He oversaw much of the brief-lived "Core" size class in the early 2020s.

Known design projects

Generations

Studio Series

Studio Series '86
Gamer Edition

War for Cybertron: Kingdom

Legacy: Evolution

Legacy: United

Age of the Primes

Rise of the Beasts

Battle Changers[6]
Beast Combiners[6]
Beast Weaponizers

Wild King

Convention appearances

Trivia

  • Yamada is perhaps the first post-Beast Wars designer, having come up on the Car Robots[8] cartoon as a child.
  • When he begged his parents for a toy of Car Robots headliner Fire Convoy, they came home with a reissue of the original Convoy instead. The Yamadas: ahead of their time.
  • Yamada was awestruck when longtime veteran and noted Car Robots lead designer Hisashi Yuki took him under his wing as something of a "work dad."
  • His dream project is to co-create an update of Super Fire Convoy alongside Yuki.

Interviews

References

  1. Design notes on Bumblebee Shockwave on Sam Smith's Instagram
  2. Design notes on Rise of the Beasts Arcee on Sam Smith's Instagram
  3. April 25, 2024's Hasbro Pulse Transformers Fanstream | April 2024 on YouTube, with Ben MacCrae, Evan Brooks, and Mark Maher
  4. "Oh, my bad for not having mentioned it. It's Koki san! An incredibly talented individual that has done a few Optimus's now."—Evan Brooks, Instagram, 2025/7/2
  5. 5.0 5.1 Transformers Generations 2022 designer interviews
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Interview in Figure Ō No. 303 (April 2023 issue)
  7. Thanks from Ben MacCrae and Evan Brooks during the Hall of Fame ceremony at Hasbro Pulse Con 2023.
  8. Later localized as the 2001 Robots in Disguise cartoon