is a Japanese toy company and animation studios, owned by Sega Sammy Holdings. The company was founded when Yonezawa Toys, Japan's largest post-war toy manufacturer, was absorbed into

Sega is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, respectively. Its division ...

in 1991 as Sega-Yonezawa. Sega Toys have created toys for children's franchises such as '' Oshare Majo: Love and Berry'', '' Mushiking: King of the Beetles'', '' Lilpri'', ''Bakugan'', '' Jewelpet'', '' Rilu Rilu Fairilu'', '' Dinosaur King'', and ''

Hero Bank is a role-playing video game developed and published by Sega for the Nintendo 3DS. It was released in Japan on March 20, 2014. A sequel, ''Hero Bank 2'', was released in Japan on November 27, 2014. An anime television series adaptation by TMS ...

''. Products by Sega Toys released in the West include the Homestar and the iDog. Sega Toys also inherited the

Sega Pico The Sega Pico, also known as is an educational video game console by Sega Toys. Marketed as " edutainment", the main focus of the Pico was educational video games for children between 3 and 7 years old. The Pico was released in June 1993 in Ja ...

handheld system and produced software for the console.

History

(known also as Yone or simply Y) was founded in the 1950s in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

. It was one of Japan's largest and most prodigious post-war toy manufacturers and an early participant in the growing radio control market. It is a former subsidiary of

Union Carbide Union Carbide Corporation is an American chemical corporation wholly owned subsidiary (since February 6, 2001) by Dow Chemical Company. Union Carbide produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers befo ...

as toy division. The company and focused on the production of thousands of different electrically operated and mechanical toys through the early 1970s. Some were branded not as Yonezawa but as STS. It is unclear as to the origin of the STS label, but it is presumed to be that of an importer. Yonezawa briefly dabbled in

radio control Radio control (often abbreviated to RC) is the use of control signals transmitted by radio to remotely control a device. Examples of simple radio control systems are garage door openers and keyless entry systems for vehicles, in which a smal ...

in the mid-1980s with the introduction of the 1/10-scale Wave Hunter buggy, sold in North America as the Monogram Lightning. Under Sega’s leadership, Yonezawa Toys was briefly known as Sega-Yonezawa until the Yonezawa branding was dropped entirely in April 1998. Once Sega Sammy Holdings was formed, Sega Toys was reorganized under Sega’s entertainment contents business. Since the early 2000s, Sega Toys markets itself distinctively from the Sega brand, with some occasional collaboration between the two. An example of their collaboration is Sega and Sega Toys producing the UFO Catcher prize games jointly, where Sega manufactures the arcade equipment, while Sega Toys produces the prizes.

Notes

References

{{Sega Sammy Holdings Toy brands Japanese companies established in 1950 Japanese companies established in 1991 Manufacturing companies based in Tokyo Multinational companies headquartered in Japan Sega Sammy Holdings Toy companies of Japan Japanese die-cast toys Manufacturing companies established in 1950