was a Japanese

toy A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and p ...

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

founded in 1955. In March 2006, the company merged with Tomy Company, Ltd. to form

Takara Tomy (trade name, trading as Takara Tomy in Asia and Tomy elsewhere) is a Japanese toy company. It was established in 1924 by Eiichirō Tomiyama as , became known for creating popular toys like the B-29 friction toy and luck-based game Pop-up Pi ...

. The Takara motto was("playing is culture"). The company focused on traditional toys and

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

s. They created the Licca-chan dolls, which has been referred to as "Japan's

Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and introduced on March 9, 1959. The toy was based on the German Bild Lilli doll, Bild Lilli doll which Hand ...

" in Western press. Some of the globally known toys and franchises that Takara invented include

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

and

Beyblade Beyblade (Japanese: ベイブレード ''Beiburēdo'') is a battling spinning top toyline and multimedia franchise developed by Takara Tomy. Beyblades were inspired by the old "beigoma" spinning tops in olden Asia. The first modern Beyblade was ...

. Takara also held the license to localise and distribute

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

products in Japan including The Game of Life, Blythe dolls, '' Magic: The Gathering'', '' Duel Masters'' trading card games. Takara was also involved in software, publishing video games based on its toys like ''Transformers'' and ''Choro Q / Penny Racers'', porting SNK Neo Geo games to consoles, and the ''

Battle Arena Toshinden ''Battle Arena Toshinden'', released as in Japan, is a 1995 fighting video game developed by Tamsoft and published by Takara for the PlayStation. It was one of the first fighting games, after ''Virtua Fighter'' on arcade and console, to boas ...

'' series.

Products

Toys

In 1960,https://www.takaratomy.co.jp/product_release/pdf_takara/01/p010315_1.pdf Takara released the Dakko-Chan ( ダッコちゃん) doll which would become a hit in Japan's during that era. The nickname was given because of how it "embraces" a person. Also referred to as Winky Dolls in English, in the 1980s the company was criticized overseas for using it as a mascot due to its

golliwog The golliwog, also spelled golliwogg or shortened to golly, is a doll-like character, created by cartoonist and author Florence Kate Upton, which appeared in children's books in the late 19th century, usually depicted as a type of rag doll. I ...

-like character and racial undertones. By the end of production in 1988, six million of these dolls were sold. In 1967, Takara produced the first generation of the Licca-chan doll, which would become very popular in Japan to this day, and which was 21 centimeters tall and had the last name of Kayama, inspired by the musician Yuzo Kayama and actress Yoshiko Kayama. They released the Jenny doll in the 1980s. P1020004-4

In 1975, Takara produced the Diaclone and

Microman was a science fiction toyline created, manufactured and marketed by Takara, Takara Co., Ltd. from 1974 to 1984 as well as from 1998 to 2007. The ''Microman'' line was a series of action figures with accompanying vehicles, robots, playsets and ...

Micro Change was a science fiction toyline created, manufactured and marketed by Takara, Takara Co., Ltd. from 1974 to 1984 as well as from 1998 to 2007. The ''Microman'' line was a series of action figures with accompanying vehicles, robots, playsets and ...

toys. In 1984, the toy line was rebranded by

as "

". Takara continued to sell Microman and used it as the basis for the

Micronauts Micronauts is a North American science fiction toyline manufactured and marketed by Mego from 1976 to 1980. The ''Micronauts'' toyline was based on and licensed from the '' Microman'' toyline created by Japanese-based toy company Takara in 1974 ...

toy line. Micronauts were sold internationally by the

Mego Corporation Mego Corporation () is an American toy company that in its original iteration was first founded in 1954. Originally known as a purveyor of dime store toys, in 1971 the company shifted direction and became famous for producing licensed action figu ...

. Other transforming toys made by Takara include Brave, Dennō Bōkenki Webdiver, and Daigunder. Both Webdiver and Daigunder toys could interact with TV screens, which proved only but a fad in the early 2000s. Beyblade tournament

In 1978, Takara developed the Choro-Q, mini pullback cars. Internationally, they have been sold as "Penny Racers". Takara also invented

Battle Beasts is a line of small 2" tall action figure toys, in the form of anthropomorphised animals with body armor and a unique weapon. Several figures have their left hand replaced by a weapon of some kind. Battle Beasts were created and largely produced b ...

, the E-kara karaoke microphone, B-Daman, and

, a product that has achieved high popularity globally. These toys were sold or distributed internationally by Hasbro. The Dakko-Chan doll was revived in 2001 in a new colorful form. This one had enough features to connote the original product, but divested the traits which brought criticism (for example, the new doll was not always coloured black).

Software

Takara developed and published

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s, the first being '' Transformers: Mystery of Convoy'' based on their own Transformers toys. They also licensed their other properties into video games for example the Famicom title '' Lost Word of Jenny'' based on their Jenny doll, and ''Choro Q'' games. Other games published by Takara include '' Banana Prince'' and '' Arabian Nights: Sabaku no Seirei-ō''. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Takara published video games for franchises and manga such as '' Chibi Maruko-chan'', '' Armored Trooper Votoms'', '' Duel Masters'' and '' Tokyo Mew Mew''. The company ported (adapted) some of the SNK Neo Geo based arcade games including the ''

Fatal Fury ''Fatal Fury'', known as in Japan, is a fighting game series developed by SNK, first released on the Neo Geo system. Gameplay The original ''Fatal Fury'' is known for the two-plane system. Characters fight from two different planes. By step ...

'' and the '' Samurai Shodown'' series for the 8 and 16-bit consoles,

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

, the

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

, or the

Famicom The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

. Takara with its contract developer Tamsoft also produced the influential 3D fighting series ''

'', and other original games such as '' SteamGear Mash''. Takara from 1994–1998 also brought many SNK fighters to the

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

in the form of simplified "demakes" called ''Nettou'', starting with '' Fatal Fury 2''. '' DreamMix TV World Fighters'' was released in 2003 as a crossover between Takara,

Hudson Soft was a Japanese video game company known for releasing numerous titles across video game consoles, home computers, and mobile phones. Headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo, it also maintained an office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. F ...

and

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

. From 2003 Takara also owned the video game developer and publisher

Atlus is a Japanese video game developer, video game publisher, publisher, Arcade game, arcade manufacturer and distribution company based in Tokyo. A subsidiary of Sega, the company is known for the ''Megami Tensei'', ''Persona (series), Persona'' ...

. Some Takara properties were licensed to and published by Atlus. In 2006, after the merger with

Tomy (trade name, trading as Takara Tomy in Asia and Tomy elsewhere) is a Japanese toy company. It was established in 1924 by Eiichirō Tomiyama as , became known for creating popular toys like the B-29 friction toy and luck-based game Pop-up Pi ...

, Takara's former controlling stake in Atlus was sold to Index Holdings,

's major shareholder. Takara-branded product licenses were returned to Takara Tomy's consumer software division; the merged company thereafter also produced the games in the

Zoids is a Japanese science fiction media franchise created by Tomy that feature giant robots (or "mecha") called Zoids, with designs being based on animals; including dinosaurs, mammals, insects, arachnids and mythological creatures. The franchise ...

and

Naruto ''Naruto'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. T ...

series.

Life entertainment products

Takara has manufactured several unusual

gadgets A gadget is a mechanical device or any ingenious article. Gadgets are sometimes referred to as '' gizmos''. History The etymology of the word is disputed. The word first appears as reference to an 18th-century tool in glassmaking that was dev ...

marketed as "life entertainment products". An example is BowLingual which aimed to translate the sounds of dogs to human language. The BowLingual was named as one of the best inventions of 2002 by ''Time'' magazine. See also Yumemi Kobo (dream generator).

Robots

In 2005, Takara produced Walkie Bits, a colorful, multi-function miniature robotic turtle. it was named ''Time'' magazine's best invention in a robot category.

Miscellaneous

In the 1980s, Takara as an OEM also sold Sord M5 home computers. In 2002, Takara developed and released a real-life, road legal small electric car based on its Choro-Q toys through its new motor subsidiary. However due to low sales these cars were soon axed.

Company history

Founded in 1955 by Yasuta Sato, the company adopted the name Takara in 1960. The company was listed on the

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. The exchange is owned by Japan Exchange Group (JPX), a holding company that it also lists (), and operated by Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc., a wholly owned sub ...

in 1984. Despite the big success of

in 1999, Takara was struggling financially. In July 2000,

bought a 22.2% controlling stake in the company. In 2003, Takara purchased

and transferred all its video gaming properties to it. Konami sold its share to Index Corporation in April 2005 and Takara became a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

of Index. On 13 May 2005, Takara and

announced their merger, with Tomy being the surviving company. It became effective on 1 March 2006. In English, the official name of the merged company is "TOMY Co. Ltd." while in Japan the legal company name is "K. K. Takara-Tomy" (; ). In deciding upon the merged company's new name, "Takara" was used for its international

brand recognition Brand awareness is the extent to which customers are able to recall or recognize a brand under different conditions. Brand awareness is one of the two key components of brand knowledge, as defined by the associative network memory model. It plays ...

and "Tomy" was used because it was a trusted brand of infant and preschool products in Japan. While Japanese commercial law allows wide latitude in translating Japanese corporate names into official English names, the merged company took the unusual step of adopting "TOMY Company, Ltd." as its official English, while using "K.K. Takara-Tomy" in Japan.

References

External links

TAKARATOMY official website

TAKARA - Wayback Machine (June 15 archive min, 2005)
{{Atlus Japanese companies disestablished in 2006 Toy companies established in 1955 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2006 2006 mergers and acquisitions Doll manufacturing companies Defunct companies of Japan Toy companies of Japan Japanese companies established in 1955 Video game companies of Japan Defunct video game companies of Japan Companies formerly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange