Sonokong

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Sonokong is a South Korean company that has held the license to manufacture and market Takara toys, including Transformers and the various <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Brave" title="Brave">Brave</a> series, in Korea since 1995. The Transformers franchises that Sonokong has produced are <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Beast_Wars_II" title="Beast Wars II">Beast Wars II</a>, <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Beast_Wars_Neo" title="Beast Wars Neo">Beast Wars Neo</a>, <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Car_Robots" class="mw-redirect" title="Car Robots">Car Robots</a>, and <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Armada_%28franchise%29" title="Armada (franchise)">Micron Legend</a>. 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 <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Car_Robots" class="mw-redirect" title="Car Robots">Car Robots</a>

line is missing the three basic-size Destrongers and the three Super Car Brothers. Other lines are even less complete, with their Micron Densetsu line including less than half of all the Takara Micron Densetsu 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. They also re-released two 4-packs of Beast Wars Neo toys in generic "Dino Robot" and "Jungle Robo" packaging without reference to Beast Wars Neo.
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.

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 <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Megastorm#Beast_Wars_II" title="Megastorm">Gigastorm</a> and <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Fortress_Maximus_%28RID%29" title="Fortress Maximus (RID)">Brave Maximus</a> have become popular among Western collectors seeking lower-cost, easier-to-find alternatives to their respective <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Hasbro" title="Hasbro">Hasbro</a>/<a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Takara" class="mw-redirect" title="Takara">Takara</a> <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Generation_1" class="mw-redirect" title="Generation 1">Generation 1</a> predecessors.

Sonokong appears to deal with <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/TakaraTomy" title="TakaraTomy">Takara</a> rather than <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Hasbro" title="Hasbro">Hasbro</a>, as evidenced by their release of their two Japanese-exclusive Transformers toylines and their many Brave toylines (not to mention their Beedaman and Jenny toylines, which are also originally Takara products). Sonokong's competitor, <a href="http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Young_Toys" title="Young Toys">Young Toys</a>, appears to deal with Hasbro rather than Takara, and imports and produces Hasbro Transformers for the Korean market as well.