is a Japanese entertainment company that makes children's toys and merchandise. It was created from a merger on March 1st 2006 of two companies: Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963) and long-time rival Takara (founded in 1955). The company has its headquarters in Katsushika, Tokyo.

History and corporate name

Before the merger

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 is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine ...

. 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 is a Japanese superhero ninja featured in several manga and anime, as well as live-action movies and TV shows. Akakage first appeared in the 1967 TV series, ''Kamen no Ninja Akakage'' which was produced by Toei Company, Toei Company Ltd ...

, 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 grew up. In response, he 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 couldn't support a multimedia franchise; however, Tomy established a relationship with

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics ( manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the ...

and created the successful

Wedding Peach is a '' shōjo'' manga written by Sukehiro Tomita and illustrated by Nao Yazawa that was originally serialized in Shogakukan's '' Ciao'' magazine. In North America, it was translated and published by VIZ Media in its entirety, consistin ...

and Let's & Go. Tomy learned about the growing popularity of

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of what each of thos ...

through Monthly Coro 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 anime became a huge hit, and sales of related products doubled. Tomy, who had been the third largest company in the toy industry since the 1980s, rose to second place in 1997. In 2001, competitor Takara's hit of Beyblade and Pokémon's slump saw Takara regaining second place and Tomy falling again to third. However, Beyblade subsequently faltered, which adversely affected Takara's fortunes; Tomy merged with the suffering company and became Takara–Tomy.

After the merger

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 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 ...

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, ...

, Battle Beasts, Beyblade,

B-Daman is a marble shooting toy franchise produced in Japan by Takara. It was originally based on the Bomberman series, but later expanded into other franchises and its own original designs. The toy's design is a humanoid figure, with a round cavity in ...

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. Takara purchased a majority stake in Tatsunoko Production in June 2005. The studio then became a full subsidiary of Takara–Tomy following the March 2006 merger until Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings bought majority of Tatsunoko's stake and is now majorly owned by it affiliate company

Nippon TV JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed ...

. Tomy UK was founded in 1982 for the sale and distribution of Tomy products in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and it has successfully brought toys such as Zoids, and games like

Pop-up Pirate ''Pop-up Pirate'' is a popular luck-based game for children manufactured by Tomy. It originated in Japan in 1975 under the name and has seen many iterations over the years. Rules The pirate is placed into a spring-loaded barrel and rotated to ra ...

, to the West. Tomy UK's slogan has traditionally been "Trust Tomy". In 2006, Tomy UK launched a website on which consumers can buy online from Tomy's catalogue. In early 2011, Takara-Tomy acquired RC2 Corporation and the RC2 sub-brand

Learning Curve A learning curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between how proficient people are at a task and the amount of experience they have. Proficiency (measured on the vertical axis) usually increases with increased experience (the ...

, which included The First Years, Lamaze, and

Compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...

Products

Takara-Tomy has manufactured a broad range of products based on its own properties which include, from the Tomy side: Tomica, Plarail, Zoids, Idaten Jump, Nohohon Zoku and Tomy branded baby care products, and, from the Takara side:

Space Pets Space Pets were a line of pneumatic-powered toys designed, manufactured and marketed by TOMY (Takara) for the American market in the early 1980s. Design The basic principle was to use a small air tank to capture, compress and controllably rel ...

, Choro-Q (also known as Penny Racers),

, B-Daman, Koeda-chan (also known as Treena) and

. The merged Takara-Tomy also produces and/or sells a wide variety of toy and game brands under license, such as ''

Thomas & Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' (originally known as ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' and later ''Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!'') is a British children's television series that aired across 24 series from 1984 to 2021. Based on ''The ...

'',

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

, '' Astro Boy'', ''

'', '' Beyblade'', '' Duel Masters'', '' Naruto'', ''

The Game of Life ''The Game of Life'', also known simply as ''Life'', is a board game originally created in 1860 by Milton Bradley as ''The Checkered Game of Life'', the first ever board game for his own company, the Milton Bradley Company. ''The Game of Life'' ...

'' (also known as ''

Jinsei Game {{nihongo, ''Jinsei Game'', 人生ゲーム, , "Life 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 eleme ...

''), ''Rockman'' (a.k.a. ''

Mega Man ''Mega Man'', known as in Japan, is a Japanese science fiction video game franchise created by Capcom, starring a series of robot characters each known by the moniker "Mega Man (character), Mega Man". Mega Man (video game), The original game w ...

''), ''

'', ''

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''. There are 32 chapters published (including two spec ...

'', ''

My Hero Academia is a Japanese superhero manga series written and illustrated by Kōhei Horikoshi. It has been serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine '' Weekly Shōnen Jump'' since July 2014, with its chapters additionally collected i ...

'', ''

Cardcaptor Sakura , abbreviated as ''CCS'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by the manga group Clamp. Serialized monthly in the ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from May 1996 to June 2000, it was also published in 12 ''tankōbon'' ...

'', '' Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card'', '' Slayers'', '' Revolutionary Girl Utena'', '' Kirarin Revolution'', ''

Sugarbunnies are a character duo originally designed in 2004 for Sanrio by Kazumi Fukasawa (深沢和美). The duo are composed of twin bunnies called Shirousa and Kurousa (both born on May 26), who specialize in making sweets and pastries. After ...

'' 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's Jinsei Game (Game of Life) license and Tomy's Pokémon license to produce a Pokémon Jinsei Game. Tomy sells many products worldwide, including baby and pre-school toys, baby monitors, mechanical and electronic games, consumer electronics, children's

arts and crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

products, and a vast range of toys suited to girls or boys. They make a large selection of

and Thomas the Tank Engine merchandise. They also publish

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...

in Japan (mostly based on Zoids and Naruto

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series), and are responsible for the distribution of some Hasbro products in Japan, such as Play-Doh, Jenga and

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

. The company was formerly responsible for distribution of the

My Little Pony ''My Little Pony'' (''MLP'') is a toy line and media franchise developed by American toy company Hasbro. The first toys were developed by Bonnie Zacherle, Charles Muenchinger, and Steve D'Aguanno, and were produced in 1981. The ponies feature ...

products in Japan before

Bushiroad is a Japanese entertainment company, producer of collectible card games and trading cards, publisher of mobile apps and games, promotional items and many other venues, which was founded in 2007 by Takaaki Kidani and is headquartered in Tokyo. ...

acquired the distribution rights to them starting with the franchise's ''

Friendship Is Magic Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept o ...

'' line (though the animated television series was owned by Hasbro). Later in 2015, after Bushiroad disowned the distribution rights, Sega Toys reacquired the rights to all generations of the franchise before selling the rights back to Hasbro. A list of notable products include: Tomy-Blip

* Armatron * Atollo – construction toy * Bakugan: Battle Planet *

– marble shooting toys * Beyblade – metal top fighting game * Blip (game) – mechanical Pong-type handheld game *

Blythe The name Blythe ( or ) derives from Old English ''bliþe'' ("joyous, kind, cheerful, pleasant"; modern ''blithe''), and further back from Proto-Germanic ''*blithiz'' ("gentle, kind"). People *Blythe (given name), including a list of people named ...

* Boggle Flash * Choro-Q – micro toy cars * Chuggington *

* Crossbows and Catapults * Duel Masters trading card game franchise *

Eldran series The is a toy and Japanese anime franchise begun by toy company Tomy in Japan. Tomy struck a cooperative deal with the animation studio Sunrise (known for its mecha series, most notably Gundam) to develop the new franchise to sell their toys. Se ...

Flip Flap Flip Flap is a solar powered toy 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. The leaves can be stopped from bouncing by a switch on the ...

– solar-powered plant * Furby * Gashapon – vending machines * Guitar Rockstar * i-SOBOT * Jenga *

Jenny Jenny may refer to: * Jenny (given name), a popular feminine name and list of real and fictional people * Jenny (surname), a family name Animals * Jenny (donkey), a female donkey * Jenny (gorilla), the oldest gorilla in captivity at the time of h ...

* Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Flame Rumble – a series of fighting games based on the manga/anime for the Nintendo DS *

Kamiwaza Wanda is a Japanese media franchise created by Takara Tomy and TBS. It consists of two manga series, both published by Shogakukan from 2016 to 2017, and a 47-episode anime television series by TMS Entertainment, aired from April 2016 to March 201 ...

* Kingdom Hearts Trading Card Game * Lamaze *

Licca , full name , is a dress-up doll series introduced in Japan on July 4, 1967 by Takara, enjoying the same kind of popularity in Japan as the Barbie series does in the United States. Takara had sold over 48 million Licca-chan dolls as of 2002, a ...

* Metal Fight Beyblade – fighting game * Metal Fight Beyblade Zero-G – fighting game * Omnibot – line of toy robots * Plarail – plastic electric

train set Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale. The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, t ...

system (called "Tomica World" outside Japan) *

* Pretty Rhythm * PriPara - the successor to the Pretty Rhythm series * Q-steer – micro radio-controlled cars based on Choro-Q * Rummikub * Screwball Scramble * Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion *

Starriors Zoids: Starriors was a robot toyline created by Tomy in association with Marvel Comics in 1984. It was a sub-line from Zoids, but it had a new storyline that was different to Zoids. Six Marvel mini-comics were distributed with the toys. Marvel al ...

* Switch 16 *

Thomas and Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' (originally known as ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' and later ''Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!'') is a British children's television series that aired across 24 series from 1984 to 2021. Based on ''The ...

– Plarail, Capsule Plarail, Tomica, and Tomix themes, and preschool products * Thunderbirds * Tomica – die-cast toy * Tomica Hyper Rescue Drive Head Kidō Kyūkyū Keisatsu *

Tomica Kizuna Gattai Earth Granner is a Japanese anime television series produced and animated by OLM, Inc., based on the long running ''Tomica'' series of die-cast metal cars created by Takara Tomy and released for the franchise's 50th anniversary. It is directed by Shinji Ushi ...

* Tomix – the model railway brand of Tomytec, a subsidiary of Takara Tomy * Tomy Tutor – home computer *

Tomytronic The Tomytronic 3D is a series of portable, handheld gaming devices released by Tomy. The device featured a strap so the player would be able to wear it around the neck in-between playing. The Tomytronic simulated 3D by having two LCD A ...

– 3D handheld game series *

* Tron – action figures and vehicles based on the Disney film *

Teletubbies ''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television series created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for the BBC. The programme focuses on four differently coloured characters known as the Teletubbies, named after the television screens on t ...

* Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card * Slayers * Revolutionary Girl Utena *Z-Knights – line of constructible models of humanoid robots styled after

knights A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...

that ran from 1991 to 1993. * Zoids *

Zootopia ''Zootopia'' (titled ''Zootropolis'' in various regions) is a 2016 American computer-animated buddy cop action comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 55th Disney animated feature fi ...

* Water Games

References

External links

* (Tomy International) * (Takara Tomy) {{Authority control Manufacturing companies based in Tokyo Software companies based in Tokyo Video game companies of Japan Toy train manufacturers Robotics companies of Japan Toy companies of Japan Katsushika Japanese companies established in 2006 Toy companies established in 2006 Radio-controlled car manufacturers Trading card companies Japanese brands Tomy games Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange