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Tomy
Tomy Company, Ltd. (株式会社タカラトミー, Kabushikigaisha Takara Tomī) (trading as Takara Tomy in Asia and Tomy elsewhere) is a Japanese toy company. It was established in 1924 by Eiichirō Tomiyama as Tomiyama Toy Manufacturing Company (富山玩具製作所), became known for creating popular toys like the B-29 friction toy and luck-based game Pop-up Pirate. In 2006, Tomy merged with another toy manufacturer, Takara, and although the English company name remained the same, it became Takara Tomy in Asia. It has its headquarters in Katsushika, Tokyo.
The company was named Tomy as an abridgement of Tomiyama, which was the founder's surname. Starting as a manufacturer, Tomy had the largest product development team in the toy industry and plaudits for its technology. Nonetheless, by its third generation, president Mikitaro Tomiyama decided to streamline the company to be more competitive with wholesaler Bandai. Bandai developed its products more quickly, which was more appealing to television properties that required a fast turnaround. Despite internal and external opposition, Tomiyama was determined to aggressively pursue TV licenses such as Akakage, Giant Robo and Osomatsu-kun.
Tomiyama was shocked when his son told him that Tomy's toys were bad and that he wanted to work for Bandai when he was an adult. In response, Tomiyama created the moderately successful Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh (then Genki Bakuhatsu Ganbaruger), but the product development team followed these with Nekketsu Saikyō Go-Saurer, which was a catastrophic failure. It became common wisdom within the industry that Tomy could not support a multimedia franchise.[citation needed] However, Tomy established a relationship with Shogakukan and created the successful Wedding Peach and Let's & Go.
Tomy learned about the growing popularity of Pokémon through the monthly CoroCoro Comic and obtained the commercial rights. Bandai at the time was busy with its big hit, Tamagotchi, and was not interested in Pokémon. Tomy acquired the rights to commercialize a wide range of merchandise, mainly toys, and released the "Monster Collection" of figures next year. The Pokémon anime became a huge hit, and sales of related products doubled. Tomy, which had been the third largest company in the toy industry since the 1980s, rose to second place in 1997.[citation needed]
In 2001, competitor Takara's hit franchise Beyblade and Pokémon's slump saw Takara regaining second place and Tomy falling back to third place. However, Beyblade subsequently faltered, which adversely affected Takara's fortunes. Tomy merged with the suffering company, and they became Takara Tomy).[citation needed]
The company decided to use the name "Tomy" in international subsidiaries, and "Takara Tomy" in Japan, because Tomy had built considerable international brand recognition while Takara's products (Microman, Transformers, Battle Beasts, Beyblade, B-Daman etc.) had been sold and branded by other toy companies such as Hasbro. Additionally, the financial cost of rebranding was prohibitive.
In Western media, the Takara Tomy merger was typically characterised as a 'takeover' of Takara by Tomy (likely 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 companies' management teams had previously discussed merging (including at times when Takara appeared stronger). Under Japanese corporate law, the move was a merger of both companies on an equal basis.
Post-merger media speculation about the control of brands from the Takara Tomy merger arose from the new use of a "TOMY" copyright on all packaging (including former Takara brands shipped by Hasbro) (but this was merely a consequence of the 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.
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Tomy
Tomy Company, Ltd. (株式会社タカラトミー, Kabushikigaisha Takara Tomī) (trading as Takara Tomy in Asia and Tomy elsewhere) is a Japanese toy company. It was established in 1924 by Eiichirō Tomiyama as Tomiyama Toy Manufacturing Company (富山玩具製作所), became known for creating popular toys like the B-29 friction toy and luck-based game Pop-up Pirate. In 2006, Tomy merged with another toy manufacturer, Takara, and although the English company name remained the same, it became Takara Tomy in Asia. It has its headquarters in Katsushika, Tokyo.
The company was named Tomy as an abridgement of Tomiyama, which was the founder's surname. Starting as a manufacturer, Tomy had the largest product development team in the toy industry and plaudits for its technology. Nonetheless, by its third generation, president Mikitaro Tomiyama decided to streamline the company to be more competitive with wholesaler Bandai. Bandai developed its products more quickly, which was more appealing to television properties that required a fast turnaround. Despite internal and external opposition, Tomiyama was determined to aggressively pursue TV licenses such as Akakage, Giant Robo and Osomatsu-kun.
Tomiyama was shocked when his son told him that Tomy's toys were bad and that he wanted to work for Bandai when he was an adult. In response, Tomiyama created the moderately successful Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh (then Genki Bakuhatsu Ganbaruger), but the product development team followed these with Nekketsu Saikyō Go-Saurer, which was a catastrophic failure. It became common wisdom within the industry that Tomy could not support a multimedia franchise.[citation needed] However, Tomy established a relationship with Shogakukan and created the successful Wedding Peach and Let's & Go.
Tomy learned about the growing popularity of Pokémon through the monthly CoroCoro Comic and obtained the commercial rights. Bandai at the time was busy with its big hit, Tamagotchi, and was not interested in Pokémon. Tomy acquired the rights to commercialize a wide range of merchandise, mainly toys, and released the "Monster Collection" of figures next year. The Pokémon anime became a huge hit, and sales of related products doubled. Tomy, which had been the third largest company in the toy industry since the 1980s, rose to second place in 1997.[citation needed]
In 2001, competitor Takara's hit franchise Beyblade and Pokémon's slump saw Takara regaining second place and Tomy falling back to third place. However, Beyblade subsequently faltered, which adversely affected Takara's fortunes. Tomy merged with the suffering company, and they became Takara Tomy).[citation needed]
The company decided to use the name "Tomy" in international subsidiaries, and "Takara Tomy" in Japan, because Tomy had built considerable international brand recognition while Takara's products (Microman, Transformers, Battle Beasts, Beyblade, B-Daman etc.) had been sold and branded by other toy companies such as Hasbro. Additionally, the financial cost of rebranding was prohibitive.
In Western media, the Takara Tomy merger was typically characterised as a 'takeover' of Takara by Tomy (likely 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 companies' management teams had previously discussed merging (including at times when Takara appeared stronger). Under Japanese corporate law, the move was a merger of both companies on an equal basis.
Post-merger media speculation about the control of brands from the Takara Tomy merger arose from the new use of a "TOMY" copyright on all packaging (including former Takara brands shipped by Hasbro) (but this was merely a consequence of the 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.