Yonezawa Toys
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is a Japanese toy company and
animation studios Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...
, owned by Sega Sammy Holdings. The company was founded when Yonezawa Toys, Japan's largest post-war toy manufacturer, was absorbed into Sega 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 , also known as , is a Japanese shōjo anime directed by Makoto Moriwaki. It was adapted from the Sega arcade game of the same name. It was also adapted into two manga series by Mai Jinna. Plot Ringo Yukimori was walking with her mom and ...
'', ''Bakugan'', ''
Jewelpet is a Japanese media franchise and toy line created in 2008 as a joint venture between Sanrio and Sega Toys, produced by the third character designer of Hello Kitty, Yuko Yamaguchi and illustrated by the character designer of Cinnamoroll, Miyu ...
'', ''
Rilu Rilu Fairilu is a character franchise created in collaboration by Sanrio and Sega Sammy Holdings, illustrated by character designer Ai Setani (Kirimichan). It is the second Sanrio franchise that was handled by two companies, the first being Jewelpet. Th ...
'', ''
Dinosaur King is a Japanese card-based arcade game from Sega that uses similar gameplay mechanics to '' Mushiking''. The game was revealed in JAMMA 2005. A Nintendo DS version was also later released. In the fall of 2008, Upper Deck Company release ...
'', 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 The iDog was a robot dog toy designed and manufactured by Sega Toys. An iDog figure receives input from an external music source, such as an MP3 player, and will light up and "dance" to the music's rhythm. It is marketed as the eDog in Germany, ...
. 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 Jap ...
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 List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
. 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 in the mid-1980s with the introduction of the 1/10-scale Wave Hunter buggy, sold in North America as the
Monogram Lightning {{Disputed, date=July 2015 The Monogram Lightning was an early 1/10-scale electric radio controlled offroad buggy kit marketed in North America in 1984 by static kit manufacturer Monogram Models (now Revell-Monogram). A variation with slightly d ...
. 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