Interview with ROTF Designer Hisashi Yuki

Takara-Tomy recently interviewed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen product designer Hisashi Yuki about his work for the toy line and some of his past work on other Transformers. From the ROTF toy line he designed Sideways, Scapel, and The Fallen toys. Below are excerpts, but click here to read the entire interview that was translated by SydneyY.

What was your first impressions on "the Fallen", who is the key character in the story?
Yuki: When we first heard that the Fallen would appear in the movie, we thought of the American comic character with the same name right away and wondered if he would be in the story, but the robot design we were given was different from what we imagined. His design looked like something from an ancient civilization. I understand while he is a homage only hardcore fans would appreciate, his design is completely original for the movie.

With the Fallen design, which part did you have trouble with, or put the most thoughts into?
Yuki: For the most of the TFs who appeared first in the second movie, we were only given the images of the front and the back views of robot and vehicle modes. We had to develop (the toys) without any knowledge of what roles those characters would play.

As for his robot mode, I tried to re-create the images as closely as possible. When we started (with ROTF toy development), the rise of the crude oil price was at its worst. Also to make the re-creation of the robot mode easier, I was not able to allocate many parts to the vehicle mode. Those were the difficulties I had.

As for the characterization ideas, we hardly had any information as to how he would be featured in the story, which made it very difficult for me to come up with a character-based gimmicks. Among the small amount of information we had was a tidbit that there would be a scene in which the Fallen crushed a primitive man under his foot. That's how I came up with his toe gimmick, and it made me grin when I actually saw the scene in the movie.

When developing his "Mech Alive" mechanism, I thought his could be different from other characters' since his body is made with more exoskeleton. We reached an agreement among the members of the staff, and I designed the protruding clear red parts, which is a homage to the flames the Fallen wears in American comics.Read More »