Tomy

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Not to be confused with Thomy.
Tomy Company, Ltd.
Katsushika, Tokyo
  • Takara Tomy (mostly in Japan and Asia)
  • Tomy (mostly in Western countries)
Native name
株式会社タカラトミー
Kabushikigaisha takara tomī
Company typePublic
TYO: 7867
Industry
Predecessor
FoundedMarch 1, 2006; 18 years ago (2006-03-01) (original Tomy, 1924; former Takara, 1955)
Headquarters7-9-10, Tateishi,
chairman)
  • Kazuhiro Kojima (president & CEO)
    • ProductsDetails
    RevenueDecrease ¥154,804 million (FY 2013–2014)[2]
    Increase ¥3,335 million (FY 2013–2014)[2]
    Decrease ¥8,929 million (FY 2013–2014)[2]
    Total assetsIncrease ¥156,467 million (FY 2013–2014)[2]
    Total equityIncrease ¥50,907 million (FY 2013–2014)[2]
    OwnerTomiyama family through Tsukasa Fudōsan KK (7.94%)
    Number of employees
    		509 (as of March 31, 2019)[3]
    Divisions
    • Tomy International, Inc.
    • Tomy (Hong Kong) Ltd.
    • T-ARTS KOREA Company, Ltd.
    • Tomy (Thailand) Ltd.
    • Tomy (Shenzhen) Ltd.
    • Tomy Southeast Asia (Philippines) Ltd.
    • Tomy Asia (Taiwan) Ltd.
    Subsidiaries
    • T-ARTS Company, Ltd.
    • Penny Company, Ltd.
    • Tomy Tec Co., Ltd.
    • Tinkerbell Inc.
    • Wako Company, Ltd.
    • Tomy Marketing Company, Ltd.
    • Kiddy Land Co., Ltd.
    • T-ENTAMEDIA Company, Ltd.
    • Tomy Ibis., Ltd.
    Websitetakaratomy.co.jp

    Tomy Company, Ltd.

    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

    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 grew up. In response, he created the moderately successful

    Let's & Go
    .

    Tomy learned about the growing popularity of Pokémon through 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 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.[citation needed]

    In 2001, competitor Takara's hit franchise, 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).[citation needed]

    After the merger

    The former "Tomy" brandname, used outside of Asia

    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 (

    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.[4]

    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.

    Learning Curve, which included The First Years, Lamaze, and Compass.[citation needed
    ]

    Products

    The Tomy Pocket Game Shooting Gallery was manufactured in 1978.[6]
    The Tomy Tutor, a 16-bit home computer released by Tomy beginning in 1982

    Takara-Tomy has manufactured a broad range of products based on its own properties which include, from the Tomy side:

    Disney, Astro Boy, Pokémon, Beyblade, Duel Masters, Naruto, The Game of Life (also known as Life Game), Rock Man (also known as Mega Man), Wedding Peach, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, My Hero Academia, Sakura Kinomoto, Sakura Kinomoto: Clear Card, Slayers, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Kirarin Revolution, Sugarbunnies 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,

    Sega Toys reacquired the rights to all generations of the franchise before selling the rights back to Hasbro.[citation needed
    ]

    A list of notable products include:

    Blip was a mechanical Pong
    handheld released in the 1970s.
    A handheld variant of Pac-Man from 1981. It was sold as Puck Man in Japan, the Japanese name of the game, on other markets as Pac-Man, Pac Man or Munchman (UK).
    Tomica toys

    References

    1. ^ a b "Company profile".
    2. ^ a b c d e "Consolidated financial statement for end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014" (PDF). Tomy Co., Ltd. 12 December 2014.
    3. ^ "Corporate Profile｜Corporate Information｜TOMY Company, Ltd". Takaratomy.co.jp. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
    4. ^ "Corporate History｜Corporate Information｜TOMY Company, Ltd". www.takaratomy.co.jp. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
    5. ^ "Tomy Uk". Tomy.co.uk. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
    6. ^ Masters, James. "TOMY Pocket Games - The USA List". Masters.me.uk. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
    7. ^ "I-Sobot". Isobotrobot.com. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
    8. ^ Coopee, Todd (16 May 2016). "Water Games from TOMY (1976)". ToyTales.ca.

    External links

    Wikimedia Commons has media related to TAKARA TOMY.
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