User:Namcokid47/Tomy

Tomy Co., Ltd.
	Katsushika, Tokyo, Japan
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Kantaro Tomiyama; (chairman); Kazuhiro Kojima; (president and CEO);
Products	Toys; Video games; Apparel; Children;
Website	tomy.co.jp

Tomy Co., Ltd.

Takara Tomy

, an entertainment conglomerate. Takara Tomy continues using the Tomy brand on its products, and outside Japan does business as Tomy Company Limited.

History

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 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 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 May 2005, Tomy announced it was considering a merger with rival

Namco Bandai Holdings and dissolving both companies.^[3]

Takara Tomy's international divisions chose to adopt the name Tomy Company Ltd., due to the strong global recognition of the Tomy brand compared to Takara.