GiG
GiG was an Italian toy company that originally held the license to market Diaclone and Microchange toys in Italy. When Hasbro introduced the Transformers brand throughout much of the rest of the world, GiG rebranded its Diaclone toys as Trasformer (note spelling) in an attempt to exploit the global popularity of Transformers without paying royalties to Hasbro. However, Hasbro eventually pressured GiG to acquire a license for the Transformers property, although for the next several years the "Trasformer" logo would remain on GiG toys.
GiG is also known for renaming characters in strange ways (such as referring to Skydive as "Log") and for selling various pre-Transformers and Transformers toys that were otherwise unavailable outside of Japan, including the Microchange version of Blaster (which was a working AM radio) and Galaxy Shuttle.
Distribution of Transformers toys in Italy was gradually shifted from GiG to the Italian Hasbro branch during the Beast Wars line. In the late 1990s, GiG was bought out by Giochi Preziosi.
External links
- Gig's official web presence (in Italian language)
- GiG article at TF-1.com
