Tomy Company, Ltd. (??????????, Kabushikigaisha takaratom?, Takara Tomy) is a Japanese entertainment company that makes children's toys and merchandise. It was created from a merger on 1 March 2006 of two companies: Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963) and long-time rival Takara (founded in 1955). The company has its headquarters in Katsushika, Tokyo.
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History and corporate name
The company made a pragmatic decision of which name to use after the merger, deciding to use "Tomy" in international subsidiaries and "Takara-Tomy" in Japan. They came to this decision because;
- Tomy has built considerable brand recognition internationally (particularly in the area of infant and preschool products, where brand trust is very important).
- The majority of Takara's international hit products (Microman, Transformers, Battle Beasts, Beyblade, B-Daman etc.) have been sold and branded by other toy companies such as Hasbro
- Changing their name would have been unproductive and expensive.
Therefore, it seemed appropriate to keep a domestic English name which matched that of international subsidiaries.
One of the editorial policies of many Western business publications is to ignore merger declarations and declare that one company is being bought by another. Therefore, in much of the Western media, the Takara-Tomy merger was characterised as a 'take-over' of Takara by Tomy. This assumption may have been made because several years of losses had put Takara in a financially weakened state at the time of the merger, although Takara did have significantly higher sales than Tomy. However, the management of Takara and Tomy had discussed merging several times, including at times when Takara appeared stronger. Under Japanese corporate law, the move was a merger of both companies on an equal basis.
There has been much post-merger media speculation about the control of brands from the Takara-Tomy merger. Much of this arose from the new use of a "TOMY" copyright on all packaging, including former Takara brands shipped by Hasbro. However, that was simply the result of a practical decision to use only the Tomy name in international subsidiaries. In Japan, Takara-Tomy continues to use both Tomy and Takara as distinct brand names on toy ranges which originated in each separate company, and most new toy ranges or stand-alone products now carry the new Takara-Tomy brand.
Takara purchased a majority stake in Tatsunoko Production in June 2005. The studio then became a complete subsidiary of Takara-Tomy, following the March 2006 merger. Tomy UK was founded in 1982 for the sale and distribution of Tomy products in Europe, and has brought toys such as Zoids, and games like Pop-up Pirate, to the West with great success. Tomy UK's slogan has traditionally been "Trust Tomy". In 2006, Tomy UK launched a website on which consumers can buy online from Tomy's catalogue. In early 2011, Takara-Tomy acquired RC2 Corporation and RC2 sub-brand, Learning Curve, which included The First Years, Lamaze, and Compass.
Products
Takara-Tomy has manufactured a broad range of products based on its own properties which include, from the Tomy side: Tomica, Plarail, Zoids, Idaten Jump, Nohohon Zoku and Tomy branded baby care products, and, from the Takara side: Space Pets, Choro-Q (a.k.a. Penny Racers), Transformers, B-Daman, Koeda-chan (a.k.a. Treena) and Microman. The merged Takara-Tomy also produces and/or sells a wide variety of toy and game brands under license, such as Thomas & Friends, Disney, Pokémon, Naruto, The Game of Life (a.k.a. Jinsei Game), Rockman (a.k.a. Megaman), Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, Kirarin Revolution, Sugar Bunnies and Animal Crossing. Tomy's rights to these licenses vary by region. One of the first examples of product synergy for the merged company was the combining of Takara's Jinsei Game (Game of Life) license and Tomy's Pokémon license to produce a Pokémon Jinsei Game.
Tomy sells many products worldwide, including baby and pre-school toys, baby monitors, mechanical and electronic games, consumer electronics, children's arts and crafts products, and a vast range of toys suited to girls or boys. They make a large selection of Disney, Pokémon and Thomas the Tank Engine merchandise. They also publish videogames in Japan (mostly based on Zoids and Naruto anime series), and are responsible for the distribution of some Hasbro products in Japan, such as Play-Doh, Jenga and Monopoly. The company was formerly responsible for distribution of the My Little Pony products in Japan before Bushiroad acquired the distribution rights to them starting with the franchise's Friendship Is Magic line (though the animated television series was owned by Hasbro). Later in 2015, after Bushiroad disowned the distribution rights, Sega Toys reacquired the rights to all generations of the franchise. In the 1960s, Tomy was a sponsor and toy maker for the television show Giant Robo (tokusatsu).
They merged with Takara shortly before the bankruptcy of the mentioned company.
List of notable products
- AAAAGHH! - a ball based battery powered obstacle path (also titled "Tricky Traps")
- AquaDoodle (formerly known as AquaDraw)
- Armatron
- Atollo - construction toy
- Atomic Pinball - miniature pinball table
- Bankman
- Beyblade - metal top fighting game
- Big Loader - Construction Set and variants
- Bit Char-G - micro radio-controlled cars
- Bit Racer - micro battery-operated slot cars
- Blip (game) - mechanical Pong-type handheld game
- Blythe
- Boggle Flash
- CAUL (Car Action Units Line) - radio-controlled vehicles
- Caveman - handheld electronic game
- Cella sticker machine
- Chatty Tom (??????? ???????) - a talking robot bear designed to help Japanese people learn English, available with different cartridges for children and adults. The adult cartridge has a vocabulary of 650 conversational phrases.
- Choro-Q - micro toy cars
- Chuggington
- Clock-Chan
- Clockman
- Compass
- Crossbows and Catapults
- Cyborg Kuro-chan - bendable figures
- Dacky
- Disney Motors
- Disney Tomica
- Dokodemo
- Duel Masters Trading Card Game
- Fashion Plates
- The First Years
- Flip Flap - solar-powered plant
- Furby
- Gacha gashapon - vending machines (distributed by Tomy Yujin Corp. (TYC) in the US and Tomy Yujin Europe (TYE) in Europe)
- Giga Pudding - a communally oriented pudding that jiggles and is topped by caramel sauce.
- Gripidee Gravidee - motorized space cards on a track popular in the 60s and 70s
- Guitar Rockstar
- Healing Labo Evizo
- Hide 'n' Squeak Eggs
- Hietama-Chan
- Insect Cage Gallery
- Inazuma Eleven
- i-SOBOT
- Jenga
- Jenny
- Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Flame Rumble - a series of fighting games based on the manga/anime for the Nintendo DS
- Lis'me Pod (???????) - girls' digital audio player
- Kingdom Hearts Trading Card Game
- Koeda-Chan
- Lamaze
- Licca
- Manekko Pi-Chan
- Metal Fight Beyblade - Metal Top Fighting Game
- Metal Fight Beyblade 4D - Metal Top Fighting Game
- Metal Fight Beyblade Zero-G - Metal Top Fighting Game
- Micro Aqua - miniature aquarium
- Micropets
- MicroDancers
- Mighty Men & Monster Maker
- My DoItAll - multi-use "game" (more of a gizmo than a game) for Nintendo DS
- Nohohon Zoku Hidamari no Tami (?????? sunny people) (sold outside Japan as "Sunshine Buddies") and Hanauta no Tami (humming people) - solar-powered perpetual motion ornamental toys which have a cult following
- Noriben
- Omnibot (??????) - line of toy robots
- Omnibot BattroBorg 20
- Pachuppa - finger puppets
- Palbo Dinka Robots - The Dinkie Robot family is preparing to invade Japan. Dinka astronauts are robots, each family member being provided with a few interactive features.
- PaPiPuPe Puppies
- Peek-a-Pooh
- Plarail (?????) - plastic electric train set system (called "Tomica World" outside Japan)
- Plarail Advance
- Pokémon
- Pop-up Pirate (??????? Kurohige-Kikiippatsu)
- Pretty Rhythm
- PriPara (Prism Paradise) - spin off of the Pretty Rhythm series
- Q-steer - micro radio-controlled cars based on Choro-Q
- Tomy Intruder - a family of 1:10 radio-controlled off-road buggy including the Adonis, Intruder and Intruder EX
- Robo-Q
- Rummikub
- Screwball Scramble
- Smart-han
- Smife (a portmanteau of "smile" and "life") - a range of novelty items or gifts
- Starriors
- Switch 16
- Thomas and Friends - Plarail, Capsule Plarail, Tomica, and Tomix themes, and preschool products
- Thunderbirds
- Tomica (???)die-cast - model vehicles
- Tomix - the model railway brand of Tomytec, a subsidiary of Takara Tomy
- Tomy AFX - slot cars
- Tomy Pocketmate
- Tomy Super Cup Football
- Tomy Tutor - home computer
- Tomytronic - 3D handheld game series
- Tomy- Unic Die Metal Cast Crane
- Transformers (????????? - Toransuf?m?)
- Tricky Traps - a ball based battery powered obstacle path (also titled "AAAAGHH!")
- Tron - action figures and vehicles based on the Disney film
- TV Teddy - Robotic bear that's plugged into a VCR and speaks to whatever is shown on the TV, with many VHS tapes that support this toy.
- Uzumajin - trading card game
- Walkabout wireless baby monitors
- Wind Ups - Original Plastic White Knob Wind Up Toys
- Xiaostyle - digital still cameras
- Z-Knights - line of constructible models of humanoid robots styled after knights that ran from 1991 to 1993.
- Zoids (???)
- Zootopia
- Teletubbies Telly Tummy - light-up doll with animated screen
- Water Games
Video games
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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