Editing ToonTown

'''ToonTown''' is a [[South Korea|South Korean]] company that apparently represented another company, '''3D Licensing International''', in licensing out the ''Transformers'' brand to multiple manufacturers in South Korea and [[Taiwan]] during the second half of the 1990s.  These manufacturers would eventually go on to produce their own ''Transformers''-branded toys and merchandise, releasing them under the ''[[Transformers: Generation 2 (toyline)|Generation 2]]'' banner.

We say ''apparently'' because the story of ToonTown is shrouded in mystery and very little firm info is known about them. They're so obscure that we don't even have a logo that we can stamp on this opening paragraph! In the early days of the online [[fandom]], people who lived or traveled in east Asia would exchange reports on mailing lists or [[alt.toys.transformers|Usenet groups]] of having seen official-looking, [[Hasbro]]-branded toys in strange colors or sizes, and the community would then scrutinize the evidence<ref>[http://fredsworkshop.com/vkorea5.html Sample of early discussions on ToonTown legitimacy, pro and con; notice the multiple extra links at the bottom]</ref> for these being legitimate ''Transformers'' products or high quality, very bold [[knockoff]]s. Decades later no decisive answers have surfaced, or seem likely to do so. 

==Toys and merchandise released under license from ToonTown / 3D Licensing International==
===Toys and merchandise released by LALA===
[[File:Lala-Logo.png|center]]
A good portion of ToonTown-branded releases are attributable to a company called "'''LALA Industry Co., Ltd.'''" ((주)라라산업"), which seems to, in fact, be a legally registered entity in South Korea <ref>[https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.lala_industry_co_ltd.632a79ba62fbff729f4b8e280993477c.html A Dun & Bradstreet page for Lala Industry & Co.]</ref>. These include a large oversized version of the 1992 ''Generation 2'' [[Optimus Prime (G1)/toys#Generation 2|Optimus Prime]], decoded in white and black with red accents (looking strikingly similar to [[Optimus Prime (G1)/Generations toys#CollabGB|a later Optimus Prime redeco]]), and a handful of merchandise like pencil cases, erasers, and a watch — all of them fully-transforming! The boxes for the bigger toys prominently display "Hasbro International", "Permission of 3D Licensing International", and the official [[Franchise|logo styles]] and faction [[insignia]] routinely seen on legitimate Transformers product (and routinely ''not'' seen on knockoffs, especially [[Knockoff#High-fidelity counterfeits|not in the 1990s]]). Smaller toys would sometimes omit these, with the licensing label being shortened to "3-D Licensed by ToonTown".

LALA apparently even had enough budget to air their own animated commercials, as [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYJ8Nev7DGo seen here].  All of these releases feature a note on the packaging saying something akin to "Scheduled to broadcast on TV", which might suggest that these were meant to be tie-in products to a local airing of the ''Generation 2'' cartoon... Or, maybe, they could just be referencing the aforementioned commercials, like the traditional "Seen on TV" in American goods. Interestingly, beyond ''Transformers'' merchandise, the only other products that we can find as having been made by LALA are other generic robot toys that transform into pencil cases <ref>[https://blog.naver.com/khwds/220445445851 A generic "Transformation Pencil Case" from Lala.]</ref>: apparently they had one ''very'' specific niche!


{| style="margin-left:1em;" width="100%"
|width="20%" valign="top"|'''Toys'''
<ul class="iconlist"> 
{{Bp-a2|[[Optimus Prime (G1)/toys#LALA|Optimus Prime]]}}
|
|width="20%" valign="top"|'''Watches'''
{{Bp-a2|[[Optimus Prime (G1)/merchandise#ToonTown|Optimus Prime]]}}
|
|width="20%" valign="top"|'''Pencil Cases'''
{{Bp-a2|[[Optimus Prime (G1)/merchandise#ToonTown|Optimus Prime]]}}
|
|width="20%" valign="top"|'''Erasers'''
{{Bp-a2|[[Optimus Prime (G1)/merchandise#ToonTown|Optimus Prime]]}}
{{Bp-d2|[[Megatron (G1)/merchandise#ToonTown|Ramjet]]}}
|
[[File:ToonTown-LALAPrime.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Too cool to be fake.]]
|}

{{-}}

===Toys and merchandise without a known manufacturer===
A handful of extra ToonTown-licensed, Hasbro-labeled toys seemingly do not have any physical manufacturing company labeled on their packaging. These include a handful of reissues of [[Kabaya]] ''[[Transformers Gum]]'' kits <ref>[https://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=nckim&logNo=70101874251&photoView=0 A review of the Kabaya-derived Soundwave kit], from blog.naver.com</ref> and — oddly — a rebranding of an old ''[[Diaclone]]'' Optimus Prime knockoff with a number of extensive molding modifications (which, surprisingly, would not make this the first time that [[Comando Toys|an official Hasbro licensee company]] would release [[Best Join|a bootleg]] as [[Radio AM Robot|a ''Transformers''-branded toy]]). The kits are marked as being made in Taiwan, and the Optimus Prime toy shares its overall packaging design with a handful of other Taiwanese-made bootlegs of its time. It seems that ToonTown used LALA as their South Korean branch and passed on the license to a handful of other unnamed non-Korean companies in Taiwan — which, in turn, might have simply reused whatever existing molds or batch of toys they had access to — to supplement their line-up.


{| style="margin-left:1em;" width="100%"
|width="20%" valign="top"|'''"Truck Becomes Robot"'''
<ul class="iconlist"> 
{{Bp-a1|[[Optimus Prime (G1)/toys#ToonTown|"Battle Supplier"]] (Optimus Prime)}}
|
|width="20%" valign="top"|'''"Easy-to-Assemble Plastic Model"'''
{{Bp-a2|[[Optimus Prime (G1)/merchandise#Transformers Gum|Optimus Prime]]}}
{{Bp-a2|[[Sideswipe (G1)/toys#Transformers Gum|Sideswipe]]}}
{{Bp-d2|[[Megatron (G1)/merchandise#Transformers Gum|Megatron]]}}
{{Bp-d2|[[Ramjet (G1)/toys#Transformers Gum|Ramjet]]}}
{{Bp-d2|[[Starscream (G1)/merchandise#Transformers Gum|Starscream]]}}
{{Bp-d2|[[Soundwave (G1)/merchandise#Transformers Gum|Soundwave]]}}
|
[[File:ToonTown-DiaclonePrime.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Help, I'm having an identity crisis.]]
|}

==Notes==
*There's also another set of famous Korean might-or-might-not-be ''Transformers'' bootlegs with a similar story: a gifset of high-quality and ''massively'' oversized [[Combaticon (G1)|Combaticons]], released in both the original and ''Generation 2'' color schemes, proudly boasting the official ''Transformers'' name and logo on the box. It's long-debated that these might also be legitimate licensed products — with a common rumor being that [[Takara]] themselves sold their mold to the manufacturer of these figures <ref>[https://toy-wizards.com/2019/03/16/super-rare-korean-transformers-toys-at-tf-con-and-the-conspiracy-theory-behind-them/ "Super-Rare Korean Transformers Toys at TF-Con (And The Conspiracy Theory Behind Them)"] on Toy-wizards.com</ref> — however, given the lack of any Hasbro or Takara (or even ToonTown!) licensing on their packaging, the broader consensus seems to be that these are, most likely, bootlegs.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Companies]]