Sonokong
Sonokong (손오공 Son-o-gong) is a South Korean company that held the license to manufacture and market Takara toys, including Transformers and the various Brave series, in Korea from 1994 to 2007. The Transformers franchises that Sonokong has produced are Beast Wars II, Beast Wars Neo, Car Robots, and Legends of the Microns. Around 2007, Sonokong lost the Transformers license to Mocom Toy.
Sonokong's Transformers toylines appear to be largely the same as their Japanese and American counterparts, with some notable differences:
- Sonokong Transformers toylines do not include all the original toys from those lines. For example, their Car Robots line is missing the three basic-size Destrongers and the three Super Car Brothers. Other lines are even less complete, with their Legends of the Microns line including less than half of all the Takara Legends of the Microns toys.
- Sonokong Transformers toys are often packed in windowless boxes.
- Small toys from the Sonokong lines were released in versus packs and gift sets rather than individually. For example, the Car Brothers were released only as a 3-pack.
- Sonokong has done two weird repacks. They re-released a couple of their Beast Wars II toys in Car Robots packaging, including an Autobot Megastorm and a 4-pack of Autorollers. They also re-released two 4-packs of Beast Wars Neo toys in generic "Dino Robot" and "Jungle Robot" packaging, with no references to Beast Wars Neo, Beast Wars, or even Transformers at all.
- Sonokong quality control is arguably sometimes a little lower.
- Sonokong boxes are often less protective than Takara or Hasbro boxes because the toy is in a less secure plastic insert that allows it to move around inside the box more.
- Beast Wars Neo, Car Robots, and Legends of the Microns all being completely stripped of any references to the Transformers franchise (both with the toys themselves and the dubs of the cartoons). With Beast Wars Neo being titled as Beast-War Neo (비스트-워 네오 Biseuteu-Wo Ne'o) (leaving out the "Transformers" part of the title from the previous line), Car Robots being titled as Brave Heroes of Justice: Car-Bots (정의의 용사 카봇 Jeonguiui Yongsa: Car Bot), and Legends of the Microns being titled as Galactic Heroes: Cybertrons (은하영웅 사이버트론 Eunha Yeongung: Cybertron).
- Individual toys have some very small differences, such as Mach Alert having "Police" written in English on his door and Brave Maximus's tower sticker being placed upside-down.
The Sonokong versions of Gigastorm and Brave Maximus have become popular among Western collectors seeking lower-cost, easier-to-find alternatives to their respective Hasbro/Takara Generation 1 predecessors.
Sonokong dealt with Takara rather than Hasbro, as evidenced by their release of their two Japanese-exclusive Transformers toylines and their many Brave toylines (not to mention many more like their B-Daman and Jenny toylines, which are also originally Takara products). Sonokong's competitor, Young Toys, dealt with Hasbro rather than Takara, and imported and produced Hasbro Transformers for the Korean market as well.
From 2013 to 2018, Sonokong distributed their former CEO's Choirock Contents Company toys from their franchises Top-Plate, Hello Carbot, Turning Mecard, Sofy Ruby, and Dino Mecard.
Notes
[edit]- If you are wondering, the name Son-o-gong is the Korean pronuniciation of [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Monkey King|{{#if:Sūn Wùkōng|Sūn Wùkōng|Monkey King}}]] (孫悟空/孙悟空), the main character of the Chinese novel Journey to the West.