Information AboutTakara |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT TAKARA | |
| toy companies | |
| tomy | |
| defunct companies of japantoy companies | |
| tomy | |
| defunct companies of japan | |
| tomy | |
|
Hasbro combined Takara's Diaclone and Micro Change toylines in 1984 to create the Transformers . Takara is also the originator of the hit toy line, Beyblade, which Hasbro also sold internationally and Takara continues to sell Microman , the basis for the hit toy line Micronauts, sold internationally by now defunct Mego beginning in the 70s. The company's other famous toylines include Choro-Q a mini pullback car, which has been running since 1978 and is marketed outside Japan as Penny Racer , and Battle B-Daman, also sold by Hasbro outside of Japan. In the 80s Takara's received criticism for its original mascot which was a Golliwog -like character named Dakko-Chan . Takara later replaced it with a fantastical character called 21st Century Colorful Dakko-Chan, which bears enough similarity to connote the original symbol, while divesting the traits which brought criticism of the original character. Besides the design, the new Dakko-Chan may be any color, rather than the constant black of the original. Other criticisms include the companies notorious reusage of older toy molds, such as Steel Jeeg 's remold for the Microman toyline. Takara was also a Videogame developer, well-known during the early 1990s for porting some of SNK 's Neo-Geo -based arcade games - especially the '' Fatal Fury '' and '' Samurai Shodown '' series - to less powerful home consoles such as the Sega Genesis and the SNES but also for the Gameboy (Fatal Fury 2, Samurai Shodown, World Heroes 2 Jet, The King of Fighters '95 and '96...). They developed their own 3D fighting game series, Battle Arena Toshinden. Takara Toys has manufactured several unusual gadgets that it calls "life entertainment products", including ''Bowlingual'', which is claimed to "translate" the "barks, whines and yelps of more than 80 breeds of dog into human language". The ''Bowlingual'' was named one of the best inventions of 2002 by ''Time'' magazine. See also Yumemi Kobo "dream generator". In 2005 another Takara product, ''Walkie bits'' was honored as a Time magazine best invention, this time in the robot category. ''Walkie bits'' are colorful, multi-function miniature robotic turtles. Though relatively simple in functionality, at 5cm long and less than 15g each, at their introduction they were said to be among the smallest ever mass produced programmable robots. The company motto is 「遊びは文化」(''asobi wa bunka'') which means "playing is culture". Takara and Tomy announced their merger on May 13 , 2005 , to become effective March 1, 2006, with the new company adopting the name ''Takara-Tomy''. Outside of Japan, the merged company will use the Tomy name, since Tomy has built considerable brand recognition internationally, whereas most of Takara's international hit products (Micronauts, Transformers, Beyblade, B-Daman, et al) have been sold and branded by other companies, most notably, Hasbro . Takara-Tomy will continue to use the former names as brand names domestically on toy lines which originated in each company, but new toy lines or stand-alone products will carry the new Takara-Tomy brand. Staple toy lines from Takara such as Transformers, Choro-Q and Licca-chan will undoubtedly continue, in many cases gaining synergy from the co-marketing with related product brands. (ie: Takara's Choro-Q and Tomy's Tomica toy car brands). Both Takara and and Monopoly, Furby, Super Soaker and Play-Doh by Tomy . REFERENCE Anonymous. 2002 Best Inventions: Dog Translator. ''Time''. 18 November 2002. |
|
|