TakaraTomy

2008-01-28T09:20:23Z

142.167.183.100:

{{disambig2|the toy company|the Generation 1 manga character|Takara (G1)}}

[[Image:Takaratomy.jpg|right]]

'''TakaraTomy''' is the producer of ''Transformers'' in Japan.

Takara was originally founded by Yasuta Satoh in 1955. One of their first successes was securing the license for releasing Mattel's "Barbie" series on the Japanese market.

In 1970, Takara secured the license for releasing [[Hasbro]]'s "[[G.I. Joe]]" line on the Japanese market. Dubbed "Combat Joe", the line would soon get a spin-off named "Henshin Cyborg" (''henshin'' being the Japanese word for "transform"), which in turn would later lead to the original ''[[Microman]]'' toyline which started in 1974.

The ''Microman'' line was relaunched as ''New Microman'' in 1981 and would lead to spin-offs such as ''[[Diaclone]]'' and ''[[MicroChange]]''. Hasbro would later acquire the license for releasing toys from both lines on the North American market. The result, dubbed "Transformers" by Hasbro, would turn out to be a huge success.

After a first test release of the US toys to a small test market in Japan apparently turned out to be successful, Takara decided to cancel ''Microman'' and ''Diaclone'' and henceforth started to release the "Transformers" in Japan as well.

Nobuyuki Okude, one of the original ''Diaclone'' designers who oversaw the production of the modified toys for Hasbro's "Transformers" line, would later rise to become Takara's Vice President and for a brief time even held the position of the company's president.

After a series of commercial failures, May 2005 saw the public announcement that Takara would merge with rival toymaker Tomy. As of April 2006, both companies ceased to exist and made way for the new company, TakaraTomy.

This incredibly convoluted chain of licensing, evolving, and re-licensing toy franchises can be used to make the heads of evil robots explode.

==External link==
*[[Wikipedia:Takara|Takara-Tomy]] on [[Wikipedia:Main Page|Wikipedia]].

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[[Category:Companies]]
[[Category: TakaraTomy| ]]<div id="wikia-credits"><br /><br /><small>From [http://transformers.wikia.com Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki], a [http://www.wikia.com Wikia] wiki.</small></div>

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TakaraTomy