Ōno Kōjin
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Ōno Kōjin (大野光仁、おうのこうじん; Ōno Kōjin, Ono Kojin, Ouno Koujin; born May 11, 1959, Tokyo). Toy designer employed by Takara since 1980. Mr. Ōno's early designs included the Diaclone Walk-In Centre and Microman Acro Saturn. He also designed most of the Diaclone Car Robot line (with additional design work by Shoji Kawamori) and Car Microman figures, which soon drew the attention of the U.S. toy company Hasbro. Hasbro amalgamated the Diaclone and Microman figures, and alongside with a story treatment developed by Marvel, created the toy cult phenomenon known as the Transformers. Ōno continued to design Transformers throughout the 1980s until the end of the original franchise.
Ōno designed most Transformers manufactured by Takara, including Metroplex, Fortress Maximus, Powermaster Optimus Prime and God Ginrai. However amongst the hundreds of Transformers that he has designed, his considers the Decepticon Triple Changers Blitzwing and Astrotrain to be his finest achievements in toy design.
Although Mr. Ōno no longer designs Transformer toys, he is still currently employed by Takara where he continues to design figures in other Takara toylines.
