TOMY
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese toy, children's merchandise and entertainment company created from the March 2006 merger of two companies:  Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963) and long-time rival, Takara
Takara
Takara Co., Ltd. was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955, that merged with another prominent Japanese toy company, Tomy Co., Ltd., on March 1, 2006 to form Takara Tomy, also known in English as TOMY Company Ltd....

 (founded in 1955). Merged on 1 March 2006, the company has its headquarters in Katsushika
Katsushika, Tokyo
is one of the special wards of Tokyo, Japan. It lies in the northeast of the ward area. The ward calls itself Katsushika City in English.As of 2008, the ward has an estimated population of 429,289 and a density of 12,600 people per km²...

, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

.

History and corporate name

The decision to use the Tomy
TOMY
is a Japanese toy, children's merchandise and entertainment company created from the March 2006 merger of two companies:  Tomy and long-time rival, Takara...

 name in English, yet the Takara-Tomy name in Japanese, was made for pragmatic reasons. Tomy
TOMY
is a Japanese toy, children's merchandise and entertainment company created from the March 2006 merger of two companies:  Tomy and long-time rival, Takara...

 has built considerable brand recognition internationally, particularly in the area of infant and preschool products, where brand trust is very important. On the other hand, most of Takara's international hit products (Microman
Microman
is a line of toys manufactured by Takara from 1974 to the present. Microman toys were originally imported to the United States by Mego Corporation as Micronauts until the company went bankrupt in 1982...

, Transformers, Battle Beasts
Battle Beasts
is a line of small 2" tall action figure toys, in the form of an anthropomorphised animal with body armor and a unique weapon. Several figures have their left hand replaced by a weapon of some kind...

, Beyblade
Beyblade
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takao Aoki. Originally serialized in CoroCoro Comic from 2000 to 2002, the individual chapters were collected and published in 14 tankōbon by Shogakukan...

, B-Daman
B-Daman
is a marble shooting toy produced in Japan by Takara. In 2005, Hasbro licensed the "Battle B-Daman" configuration of the toy. In 2004, Hasbro joined forces with Takara and Fox Entertainment Group to bring it to the Japan and USA....

, et al.) have been sold and branded by other companies, most notably, Hasbro
Hasbro
Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...

. Therefore, going through the costly process of registering and or changing the company name in all the countries where Tomy does business would have been expensive and unproductive. Thus, with the merged company's international subsidiaries continuing to use the Tomy name, it seemed appropriate to keep a domestic English name which matched that of the international subsidiaries.

Editorial policies of many Western (English language) business publications is to ignore "merger" declarations and declare one company to be bought by another, often by splitting hairs over the number of board members, etc. Therefore, in much of the English media, the Takara-Tomy merger was characterized as a "take-over" of Takara by Tomy. This assumption was made easier by the adoption of only the Tomy name in English. It is true that several years of losses had put Takara in a financially-weakened state at the time of the merger. On the other hand, Takara did in fact have significantly higher sales than Tomy for three years preceding the merger. Yet it is common knowledge that, over the years, the management of Takara and Tomy, which were located less than a kilometer apart in Tokyo and had respectfully competed with each other as they grew side-by-side into world-class toy companies, had discussed merging several times, including times when Takara appeared stronger. Thus, ultimately, philosophically, culturally and legally under Japanese corporate law, the companies agreed to merge on an equal basis.

There has been much post-merger speculation on the control of brands such as Transformers now being with Tomy vs. Takara. Much of this arises due to the new use of the English "TOMY" copyright on all packaging, including former Takara brands shipped by Hasbro. This is simply the natural result of the practical decision to use only the Tomy name in English. In fact, internally, where 99% of the employees are Japanese and speak mainly Japanese, there is only one company, known in Japanese as "Takara-Tomy," and almost all internal departments have a healthy mix of management from both former companies. The fact that the English name is "Tomy" bears little relevance for most employees.

In Japan, Takara-Tomy continues to use the former Tomy and Takara names as distinct brand names on toy lines which originated in each company, but most new toy lines or stand-alone products carry the new Takara-Tomy brand. Staple toy lines from each company are continuing, in many cases gaining synergy from the co-marketing of each other's properties. This merger gave the combined company near parity in domestic (Japan) toy market share to domestic rival Bandai
Bandai
is a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third-largest producer of toys . Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs...

.

Takara
Takara
Takara Co., Ltd. was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955, that merged with another prominent Japanese toy company, Tomy Co., Ltd., on March 1, 2006 to form Takara Tomy, also known in English as TOMY Company Ltd....

 purchased a majority stake in Tatsunoko Production
Tatsunoko Production
, often shortened to , is a Japanese animation company. Founded in October 1962 by acclaimed anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida along with his brothers Kenji and Toyoharu...

 in June 2005. The studio then became a complete subsidiary of Takara Tomy, following the March 2006 merger. In 2006, Tomy UK launched a website where consumers can buy directly from Tomy's catalogue online.

Products

The merged company has manufactured a broad range of products based on its own properties which include, from the Tomy side, Tomica
Tomica
Tomica is the line of die-cast toy vehicles and related products produced by Takara Tomy Co. of Japan . This is not the same as Tomica World, which is a line of motorized trains and vehicles and accessories that Tomy Co. of Japan has produced since the late 1990s...

, Plarail
Plarail
is a toy train and track system made by Tomy and introduced in Japan in 1959. It was expanded into an battery-operated electric toy train system in October 1961. The system is usually known as "Plarail system" in Asia and "Tomica World" outside of Asia...

, Zoids
Zoids
is a multi-media model-kit-based franchise originating from Japanese toy company Tomy ; though now produced by various companies through licenses. The majority of the franchise is built around and focused on the various model kit series...

, Idaten Jump, Nohohon Zoku Hidamari no Tami (aka Sunshine Buddies) and Tomy branded baby care products such as baby monitors, carriers etc.; and from the Takara side, there are Space Pets
Space Pets
Space Pets were a line of pneumatic-powered toys designed, manufactured and marketed by TOMY for the American market in the early 1980s.- Design :...

, Choro-Q
Choro-Q
is a series of Japanese 3–4 cm long toy cars, with coil-spring pullback motors, first made by Takara in 1978, and sold extensively in Western markets as Penny Racers....

 (aka Penny Racers), Transformers
Transformers (toy line)
The is a line of toys produced by the American toy company Hasbro. The Transformers toyline was created from toy molds mostly produced by Japanese company Takara in the toylines Diaclone and Microman. Other toy molds from other companies such as Bandai were used as well...

, B-Daman, Licca-chan, Koeda-chan (aka Treena) and Microman
Microman
is a line of toys manufactured by Takara from 1974 to the present. Microman toys were originally imported to the United States by Mego Corporation as Micronauts until the company went bankrupt in 1982...

 (aka Micronauts). The merged 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 (aka Jinsei Game
Jinsei Game
is the Japanese version of the board game that is called The Game of Life in North America. Unlike The Game of Life, the player starts in his toddler years and has to go to elementary school, junior high school, and high school before being allowed to either go to university or start his career....

), Rockman (aka Megaman), Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch
Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch
is a shōjo manga and anime series created by Michiko Yokote, with artwork by Pink Hanamori. The manga was originally published in the monthly shōjo manga anthology Nakayoshi...

, Kirarin Revolution
Kirarin Revolution
is a Japanese shōjo manga by An Nakahara. The series' title is the supposed name of Kirari's debut single. As of August 2007, it runs in the shōjo magazine Ciao published by Shogakukan...

, 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
Takara
Takara Co., Ltd. was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955, that merged with another prominent Japanese toy company, Tomy Co., Ltd., on March 1, 2006 to form Takara Tomy, also known in English as TOMY Company Ltd....

's Jinsei Game (Game of Life) license and Tomy's Pokémon license to produce a Pokémon Jinsei Game.

Tomy UK was founded in 1982 for sale and distribution of Tomy products in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, and have brought toys such as Zoids and a variety of games like Pop-up Pirate
Pop-up Pirate
Pop-up Pirate is a popular game for children manufactured by Tomy. It originated in Japan under the name .-Rules:The pirate is placed into a spring-loaded barrel. Players must take it in turns to insert plastic swords into slots in the side of the barrel...

 to the West with great success. Tomy UK's slogan has traditionally been "Trust Tomy".

Tomy sells many products worldwide, including baby and pre-school toys, baby monitor
Baby monitor
A baby monitor, also known as a baby alarm, is a radio system used to remotely listen to sounds made by an infant. The transmitter unit, equipped with a microphone, is placed near to the child. It transmits the sounds the baby makes by radio waves to a receiver unit with a speaker carried by, or...

s, mechanical and electronic games, consumer electronics, children's arts and crafts
Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into handicrafts or "traditional crafts" and "the rest"...

 products, and a vast range of toys suited to girls or boys. They make a large selection of Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...

, Pokémon
Pokémon
is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...

 and Thomas the Tank Engine merchandise. They also publish videogames
VideoGames
VideoGames may refer to:*VideoGames, a mid-1990s magazine about video games.*Video games in general....

 in Japan (mostly based on Zoids
Zoids
is a multi-media model-kit-based franchise originating from Japanese toy company Tomy ; though now produced by various companies through licenses. The majority of the franchise is built around and focused on the various model kit series...

 and Naruto
Naruto
is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. The plot tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, an adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and aspires to become the Hokage, the ninja in his village who is acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of...

 anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 series), and are responsible for the distribution of some Hasbro
Hasbro
Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...


products in Japan, such as Play-Doh
Play-Doh
Play-Doh is a modeling compound used by young children for art and craft projects at home and in school. Composed of flour, water, salt, boric acid, and mineral oil, the product was first manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA as a wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s...

, Jenga
Jenga
Jenga is a game of physical and mental skill created by Leslie Scott, and currently marketed by Parker Brothers, a division of Hasbro. During the game, players take turns to remove a block from a tower and balance it on top, creating a taller and increasingly unstable structure as the game...

 and Monopoly
Monopoly (game)
Marvin Gardens, the leading yellow property on the board shown, is actually a misspelling of the original location name, Marven Gardens. The misspelling was said to be introduced by Charles Todd and passed on when his home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and thence to Parker...

.

List of notable products

  • AquaDraw
  • Armatron
    Armatron
    The Armatron was a toy robot from the 1980s made by TOMY and distributed by Radio Shack in the United States. It consisted of a crane-like arm with two attached joysticks which could be manipulated to pick up small objects...

  • Atollo
    Atollo
    ATOLLO is a construction toy invented by Scottish architect Donald Macdonald consisting of hinge and socket pieces. Its appeal lies in the flexibility of the three-dimensional shapes it can create. Atollo is sold by Tomy....

     - construction toy
  • Atomic Pinball - miniature pinball
    Pinball
    Pinball is a type of arcade game, usually coin-operated, where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more metal balls on a playfield inside a glass-covered case called a pinball machine. The primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible...

     table
  • Big Loader - Construction Set and variants
  • Bit Char-G - micro radio-controlled cars
  • Bit Racer - micro battery-operated slot cars
  • CAUL (Car Action Units Line) - radio-controlled vehicles
  • Caveman
    Caveman (electronic game)
    Caveman was a handheld electronic game made by TOMY. It came in 3 different colors, red, gold and white/orange. Radio Shack sold it under the Tandy brand name for $39.95. Sold in the UK under the Grandstand name. Its screen was VFD and ran on 4 C batteries. Its model # was 7613.-External links:* at...

     - handheld electronic game
    Handheld electronic game
    ----Handheld electronic games are very small, portable devices for playing interactive electronic games, often miniaturized versions of video games. The controls, display and speakers are all part of a single unit. Rather than a general-purpose screen made up of a grid of small pixels, they...

  • Cella sticker machine
  • Chatty Tom (英会語フレンドチャティートム) - 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
    Choro-Q
    is a series of Japanese 3–4 cm long toy cars, with coil-spring pullback motors, first made by Takara in 1978, and sold extensively in Western markets as Penny Racers....

     - micro toy cars
  • Crossbows and Catapults
    Crossbows and Catapults
    Crossbows and Catapults, also known as Barbarernas sista kamp and Battlegrounds, is a game of physical skill first released in 1983. It has since been published by several different game publishers including Lakeside, Alga , Base Toys, Tomy and currently Moose Toys...

  • Cyborg Kuro-chan - bendable figures
  • Duel Masters Trading Card Game
    Duel Masters Trading Card Game
    The Duel Masters Trading Card Game is a two-player or 2 vs. 2 team collectible card game jointly developed by Wizards of the Coast, Shogakukan, and Mitsui & Co.. The card game is part of the Duel Masters franchise....

  • Fashion Plates
  • Flip Flap
    Flip Flap
    Flip Flap is a solar powered ornament that resembles a plant.The small solar panel powers two leaves that bounce up and down continuously until the light source to the solar panel is stopped...

     - solar-powered plant
  • Gacha gashapon
    Gashapon
    is a Bandai brand trademark widely used throughout the world for their capsule toys. It is also referred to as ." Both gashapon and gachapon are Japanese onomatopoeia, made up of two sounds: "gasha" or "gacha" for the turning of a crank on a toy vending machine, and "pon" for the sound of the toy...

     - vending machines (distributed by Tomy Yujin Corp. (TYC) in the US and Tomy Yujin Europe (TYE) in Europe)
  • Giga Pudding
    Giga pudding
    Giga Pudding is a dessert creation kit manufactured by the Japanese toy company Takara Tomy first released in 2008. The product itself comes with all the ingredients required, and a large bucket to prepare in and create a twenty serving crème caramel meant to be shared...

     - a communally-oriented pudding that jiggles and is topped by caramel sauce
    Caramel sauce
    Caramel sauce is a sauce made from heating water and caster sugar at a low to moderate temperature until the sugar dissolves and "caramelizes", changing color to golden brown.-See also:*Dulce de leche*Somebody's Mother's Chocolate Sauce's Caramel Sauce...

    .
  • Gripidee Gravidee - motorized space cards on a track popular in the 60s and 70s
  • Guitar Rockstar
    Guitar Rockstar
    Guitar Rockstar is the European brand name for a virtual air guitar, manufactured by Tomy. It originated and continues to be sold by Tomy in Japan under the brand name "Air Guitar." Gameplay consists of holding buttons representing notes and strumming where the strings would be, in a similar...

  • Hide 'n' Squeak Eggs
  • Insect Cage Gallery
  • i-SOBOT
  • Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Flame Rumble - a series of fighting games based on the manga/anime for the Nintendo DS
  • Lis'me Pod (リスミーポッド) - girls' digital audio player
  • Kingdom Hearts Trading Card Game
  • Mario Kart
    Mario Kart
    is a series of go-kart-style racing video games developed by Nintendo as a series of spin-offs from its trademark Mario series of platformer adventure-style video games...

    s
  • Micro Aqua - miniature aquarium
  • My DoItAll - multi-use "game" (more of a gizmo than a game) for Nintendo DS
    Nintendo DS
    The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

  • Nintendogs
    Nintendogs
    is a real-time pet simulation video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was first released in Japan, and was later released in North America, Australia, Europe, and other regions. It was originally released in three different versions:...

  • Nohohon Zoku Hidamari no Tami (ひだまりの民 sunny people) (sold outside Japan as "Sunshine Buddies") and Hanauta no Tami (humming people) - solar-powered perpetual motion
    Perpetual motion
    Perpetual motion describes hypothetical machines that operate or produce useful work indefinitely and, more generally, hypothetical machines that produce more work or energy than they consume, whether they might operate indefinitely or not....

     ornamental toys which have a cult
    Cult
    The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...

     following
  • Omnibot
    Omnibot
    The Omnibot is a toy robot originally manufactured by Tomy in the mid 1980s. The name then came to apply to the successful line of robots manufactured by the company. The initial Omnibot was announced with expectations of restoring popular interest in robots, at a time when it was becoming obvious...

     - line of toy robots
  • Pachuppa - finger puppets
  • PaPiPuPe Puppies
  • Peek-a-Pooh
  • Plarail
    Plarail
    is a toy train and track system made by Tomy and introduced in Japan in 1959. It was expanded into an battery-operated electric toy train system in October 1961. The system is usually known as "Plarail system" in Asia and "Tomica World" outside of Asia...

     (プラレール) - plastic electric train set
    Train set
    A train set is a set, normally consisting of a model train and a small circle or oval of track. A set of rail tracks of more appropriate size for a train set is a model railroad layout...

     system (called "Tomica World" outside Japan)
  • Pokémon
    Pokémon
    is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...

     Screen Cleaners
  • Pop-up Pirate
    Pop-up Pirate
    Pop-up Pirate is a popular game for children manufactured by Tomy. It originated in Japan under the name .-Rules:The pirate is placed into a spring-loaded barrel. Players must take it in turns to insert plastic swords into slots in the side of the barrel...

     (黒ひげ危機一発 Kurohige-Kikiippatsu)
  • Q-steer
    Q-steer
    is a line of remote-controlled toy cars manufactured by Takara Tomy, based on the popular Choro-Q pullback line. First released in late 2006, Q-Steer replaces Takara's Digi-Q and Tomy's Bit Char-G micro R/C lines.-Overview:...

     - micro radio-controlled cars based on Choro-Q
  • Rummikub
    Rummikub
    Rummikub is a tile-based game for two to four players.-History:...

  • Screwball Scramble
    Screwball Scramble
    Screwball Scramble is a toy made by TOMY that involves guiding a 1 centimeter metal ball bearing around an obstacle course. A player guides the ball by using various buttons, dials and levers that affect parts of the course. If a mistake is made a player must start again...

  • Smife (a portmanteau of "smile" and "life") - a range of novelty items or gifts
  • Starriors
    Starriors
    Starriors was a robot toyline created by Tomy in association with Marvel Comics in 1984. They were based on Zoids, but had a new storyline that U.S. Zoids had not had at all...

  • Tomica
    Tomica
    Tomica is the line of die-cast toy vehicles and related products produced by Takara Tomy Co. of Japan . This is not the same as Tomica World, which is a line of motorized trains and vehicles and accessories that Tomy Co. of Japan has produced since the late 1990s...

     (トミカ)die-cast
    Die-cast toy
    The term die-cast toy here refers to any toy or collectible model produced by using the die casting method. The toys are made of metal, with plastic, rubber or glass details. Wholly plastic toys are made by a similar process of injection moulding, but the two are rarely confused...

     - model vehicles
  • Tomix
    Tomix
    Tomix is model railway brand of the Japanese company Tomytec, a subsidiary of toy manufacturer Takara Tomy .-Product outline:...

     - the model railway brand of Tomytec, a subsidiary of Takara Tomy
  • Tomy AFX - slot cars
  • Tomy Pocketmate
  • Tomy Super Cup Football
  • Tomy Tutor
    Tomy Tutor
    The Tomy Tutor was a home computer produced by the Japanese toymaker Tomy. It was architecturally similar- but not identical- to the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, and used a similar 16-bit CPU. The computer was launched on the UK and European markets in late 1983...

     - home computer
    Home computer
    Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...

  • Tomytronic
    Tomytronic
    The Tomytronic 3D was a series of portable, handheld gaming devices released in the 1980s by Takara Tomy Co., Ltd. The device featured a strap so the player would be able to wear it our his or her neck in between playing. The Tomytronic simulated 3D by having two LCD panels that were lit by...

     - 3D handheld game series
  • Tron
    Tron
    -Film:*Tron , a franchise that began in 1982 with the Walt Disney Pictures film Tron** Tron , a 1982 science fiction film by Disney, starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan, Dan Shor and David Warner...

     - action figures and vehicles based on the Disney film
  • Uzumajin - trading card game
  • Walkabout wireless baby monitor
    Baby monitor
    A baby monitor, also known as a baby alarm, is a radio system used to remotely listen to sounds made by an infant. The transmitter unit, equipped with a microphone, is placed near to the child. It transmits the sounds the baby makes by radio waves to a receiver unit with a speaker carried by, or...

    s
  • Wind Ups - Original Plastic White Knob Wind Up Toys
  • Xiaostyle - digital still cameras
  • Zoids
    Zoids
    is a multi-media model-kit-based franchise originating from Japanese toy company Tomy ; though now produced by various companies through licenses. The majority of the franchise is built around and focused on the various model kit series...

    (ゾイド)

External links

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