This year marks the 15th Anniversary of the Super Imaginative Chogokin Line, the toy line known for re- imagining classic Ishinomori characters. As part of the celebration, Tamashi held an interview with two of the line’s designers: Gojima and Yasufuji Kenji where they talk about prototyping, the success of the Kamen Rider OOO figures and the future release of the new Shin Ichigo.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Yasufuji: Now, we are working with Nakashima Kenichi along with the digital expert Ito in a 4 person system/structure. At the current moment, we’re mostly focusing on the coloring, but soon I think we’ll build up inertia. For now, the work process is like, I make a right arm and pass it along… They say, “And now the left arm please.”

Gojima: “In 3 days!” And I’m like only 3 days…? It’s all purely hand crafted, so anyone with a free hand does what they can.

Yasufuji: And when some of those things come up, I think “Nope… that’s not right.” and start fixing it. (giggle) Neither side seems strange by themselves, but when we put them together, sometimes they seem a bit off. When working with solids, sometimes things just have an interesting shape.

Gojima: Basically, it’s just that over and over again. We kept fixing things so much, I moved into Yasufuji’s area! (more giggles)

— The current “Kamen Rider 000” Series is really popular, isn’t it!

Yasufuji: With the last S.I.C. series, it was mainstream to have retrofitting parts to make different characters, but many of the the hardcore fans said, “We’ll buy the different characters anyway, so you don’t have to do it that way!” (again with the giggles) Recently, that gimmick has been seen as a waste. In that vein, we traded in “retrofitting” for “play value”, The OOO arms and legs can be exchanged to depict scenes from the show. But, we’re worried about how accurate we have to be with these parts. In the show, these effects only last for an instant, so we have questions like, “What is the original shape of the grasshopper hero’s leg?” (Giggle) So, until the first round of Tatobakobo go out on sale, we were breaking out in a cold sweat. But overall they were received well, so we were relieved.

Gojima: In an attempt to compliment us, they were called “Gross” on the net.