What Is Takara?
The Japan-based Takara Company, creator of the Transformer toys, was founded in 1955 and merged with toy company competitor, the Tomy Company, in 2006 to form Takara-Tomy. The company developed the Diaclone and Micro Change toys for the Japanese market, and Hasbro distributed the toy line as Transformers in the West. Takara-Toma develops and publishes video games.
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Toy Production
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Takara developed the Diaclone toy series in 1980 as vehicles that transform into robots and are piloted by Microman characters. Designed by Shoji Kawamori and Kazutaka Miyatake, the line also featured another line of toys called Car-Robots, which were designed by Koujin Ohno.
Hasbro Connection
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The Diaclone, Microman and Car-Robot series were immensely popular in the Japanese domestic market, but were discontinued in 1985 to be rebranded as Transformers through Hasbro for Western markets. Takara and Tomy separately had a distribution relationships with Hasbro and continued that relationship after the merger. In addition to the Transformers line, Hasbro also handled Takara's Battle B-Daman, e-Kara and Beyblade toys and for Tomy the Zoids and the old Pokémon series.
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Video Games
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In the early 1990s, Takara produced Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury video game series through Sega Genesis and Game Boy. It also published Battle Arena Toshinden, a 3-D fighting game. Most of these games, however, were developed by farming out work to contractors who were not credited for the original work.
Tomy Merger
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Takara's merger with Tomy has been the source of confusion and controversy in the toy industry. The merger is largely considered by the industry as a takeover of Takara by Tomy because Takara had suffered several financial setbacks after 2000. The English translation of the new company is Tomy Co. Ltd. for the larger Western market, whereas in the smaller Japanese market, the company operates under the name is Takara-Tomy.
Branding
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Premerger toys continued to carry the name of the company that originated the product, but new toys are branded with the Takara-Tomy name in Japan and Tomy in the West. Takara, for example, produces its premerger Penny Racers, Transformers, Treena and B-Daman toys, and Tomy remains the sole name on premerger Zoids, Sunshine Buddies and Plarail toys. Under the postmerger Tomy name in the West, the company produces Thomas & Friends, Pokémon, Sugar Bunnies and Animal Crossing toys, among others.
Recent Products
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Takara's most successful premerger product was the miniature robot turtles Walkie Bits that garnered the Best Invention Award in 2005 from Time magazine. Takara also developed the BowLingual that "translates" 80 breeds of dog barks into human language.
The Company Today
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Takara-Tomy is led by Kantaro Tomiyama, president and CEO and grandson of Tomy founder Eiichiro Tomiyama. He is responsible for nearly 540 employees that make up the company following the merger. In addition to Japan, the company has corporate offices in France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong and Thailand. It also produces a line of preschool products and children's clothing.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Takara-Tomy Co.
