is a toy designer employed by

Takara was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955. In March 2006, the company merged with Tomy, Tomy Company, Ltd. to form Tomy, Takara Tomy. The Takara motto was("playing is culture"). The company focused on traditional toys and board games. They cr ...

since 1980. Ōno's early designs included the ''

Diaclone is a toyline by Takara Toys launched in 1980. It consisted of transforming vehicles and robots piloted by miniature, magnet-shoed figures spun off from the prior Microman toy line. The toys in the 1980 line were designed by future ''Macross'' d ...

Walk-In Centre'' and ''

Microman was a science fiction toyline created, manufactured and marketed by Takara, Takara Co., Ltd. from 1974 to 1984 as well as from 1998 to 2007. The ''Microman'' line was a series of action figures with accompanying vehicles, robots, playsets and ...

Acro Saturn''. He designed most of the ''Diaclone Car Robot'' line (with additional design work by

Shoji Kawamori A is a door, window or room divider used in traditional Japanese architecture, consisting of translucent (or transparent) sheets on a lattice frame. Where light transmission is not needed, the similar but opaque '' fusuma'' is used (/close ...

) and ''Car Microman'' figures, which drew the attention of the U.S. toy company

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

. Hasbro amalgamated the Diaclone and Microman figures and, along with a story treatment developed by

Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...

, created the toy cult phenomenon known as the

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

. Ōno continued to design Transformers throughout the 1980s until the end of the original series. Ōno designed most Transformers manufactured by Takara, including Metroplex, Fortress Maximus and Powermaster

Optimus Prime Optimus Prime, also known in Japan as is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Transformers'' franchise. Generally depicted as a brave and noble leader, Optimus Prime is the supreme commander of the Autobots in their fight ag ...

. Among the hundreds of Transformers that he designed, he considers the

Decepticon The Decepticons are a fictional faction of sentient robots in the ''Transformers'' multimedia franchise. Serving as the main antagonists in the franchise, their goals include conquering their fictional homeworld planet Cybertron, defeating ...

Triple Changers

Blitzwing This article shows a list of characters from ''The Transformers'' television series that aired during the debut of the American and Japanese Transformers media franchise from 1984 to 1991. Autobots The Autobots (also known as Cybertrons in Jap ...

and

Astrotrain This article shows a list of characters from ''The Transformers'' television series that aired during the debut of the American and Japanese Transformers media franchise from 1984 to 1991. Autobots The Autobots (also known as Cybertrons in Jap ...

to be his finest achievements in toy design. Although Ōno no longer designs Transformer toys, as of 2005 he is still employed by Takara where he continues to design figures in other Takara toylines.

References

External links

Takara Staff Interview: Ōno Kōjin

Official Takara Transformers site
Toy inventors Mechanical designers (mecha) Living people 1959 births {{Japan-engineer-stub