Toy links
George Dunsay interviewed.
“The involvement of Marvel is an outgrowth of our G.I. Joe work. This part was purely the idea of Griffin-Bacal.”
Griffin and Bacal interviewed.
“The idea was, how do you take the fantasy and bring it alive? … If we can dimensionalize the fantasy, whether it’s a humorous fantasy, or good versus evil, it really helps kids role-play with the whole idea.”
The origin of Marvel’s Transformers comic.
“Following the success of G.I. JOE, these toy developments had become a regular thing.” (Part 2. Jim Shooter’s Transformers treatment.)
Ron Friedman interviewed.
“My job was to take that limited information and create characters somebody cared about. Characters with a particular way of speaking, a particular sense of humor if they had one, and a body language that went along with their dialogue so they became like living beings.” (See also.)
Toys that transformed the world’s way of play.
“For us … these guys become human, we project ourselves onto them — our frailties and strengths; they act as our representatives in a fantasy world.”
1980 Diaclone catalogue translation.
“The history of Transformers has always been as interesting as the toys themselves.” (1981. Early 1982. Late 1982. 1983. 1983-84. 1985.)
Okude Nobuyuki interviewed.
“Our main target was boys, so we really looked for what the boys have around them and what they were interested in. Then we found that they all like cars!”
1983 Diaclone Car Robot Battle Convoy.
The toy that would become Optimus Prime. (See also.)
2021 Diaclone Battle Convoy V-Max.
Part of the Diaclone revival. (See also.)
1983 Tokyo Toy Fair.
Where Takara’s Microman Microchange and Diaclone Car Robot came to Hasbro’s attention. (YouTube, 24:39.)
Japan and the oil crisis.
“The question I ask myself is whether Japan can survive.” (Spoiler: it did.)
Microman Zone catalogue.
“With the crisis of the great ‘oil shock’ in 1973, the large clear cyborg toys were getting too high-cost for manufacture, so some new scale formats were tried out …” (Parts 2, 3, 4, 5.)
Microforever.
“Microman Zone proved to be popular and by its second year Microman line began to take on its own identity and separated itself from the influence of the Henshin Cyborg line.”
Ogawa Iwakichi interviewed.
“… when we manufactured Jaguar, we used 3mm joints of ABS plastic for attachments. … Since the 3mm pegs seemed to break easily, I figured, okay, let’s go with 5mm. From that point onward, Takara has used the 5mm gauge for all their product’s molds ever since.”
Marty Abrams interviewed.
“We were making action figures, we were making playsets, and making toys of multiple figures within brands. Micronauts had all of the above, plus one additional piece of the pie, which was construction and building. … You could take characters apart and put them back together again.”
Fred Ladd on Tetsuwan Atom.
“The show … put Japan on the map as an animation production country. And as soon as that hit, all of sudden, all over Tokyo, a hundred studios sprang up overnight.”
Popy Jumbo Machinder Mazinger Z.
(See also.)
Invincible Guardians of World Freedom.
“A Shogun Warriors comic ran for sixteen issues, courtesy of artist Herb Trimpe and writer Doug Moench.”
Nagai Go interviewed.
“Even if they start out by imitating Japanese manga, they are still fundamentally children of their own cultures. … Eventually, they will produce something completely original … After all, Japanese manga was originally greatly influenced by American comics and Disney, so these things go around in cycle.”
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot.
(YouTube, 01:12. See also.)