Hasbro and Takara have been partners for a long time. Their first collaboration was way back in the early 1970's when Hasbro gave Takara a license to produce GI Joe toys for sale in Japan. After about ten years, things came full circle and Hasbro decided to license some toys from Takara -- selected robots from the Microchange and Diaclone lines. The funny part is that Transformers wouldn't exist if not for that GI Joe deal, as it was the Joe toys that inspired Takara to create Henshin Cyborg, which was then miniaturized into Microman, which led to the creation of the Microchange and Diaclone lines years later.
Once Transformers took off in the USA, Takara decided to market the TFs in Japan, and shut down New Microman and Diaclone. For roughly the first two years of Transformers, all of the toys released had been previously released by Takara, or had at least been designed and planned for release before Transformers took over. Starting with the Transformers movie, however, the two companies entered into a cooperative design process. We don't know the details of the cooperation at that time, although it probably wasn't too different from the way things work now. (See [N/A].) Takara has always controlled the Transformers franchise within Japan (although like any company they sometimes license things out to others while staying in control; they've even licensed out toy production at times, leading to things like the Korean "licensed knockoff" of Starscream & BB), but elsewhere in the world -- including the rest of Asia -- TFs are controlled by Hasbro. Both corporations have marketed Transformers lines which the other has passed on. It appears as if they always have the option of licensing lines from each other, however. Even when Takara doesn't market a line in Japan (and are, thus, not involved in developing the story, characters, etc.), however, they are still involved in the toy design. Hasbro, on the other hand, is seemingly not involved at all in the Takara-exclusive lines.
When their partnership began, it was described as a pretty far-reaching thing where Dreamwave would basically be responsible for creating all official Transformers artwork. Things started out being more or less like that, but over time other artwork has creeped in. Still, DW (or artists affiliated with DW) did all the package artwork for Armada, and a lot of other promotional artwork. They're even credited for illustrating the Armada chapter books published by Reader's Digest. Dreamwave also did character designs for the line based on the toys which, initially, were supposed to be used uniformly across all merchandise. (Including, one presumes, the cartoon.) This more or less panned out, although the uniformity isn't perfect. If you're not studying them carefully, though, it's likely you won't even notice. Some products from this period that were marketed exclusively by Takara in Japan boast non-Dreamwave artwork, but much of Takara's product for this line used the same character portraits seen in the USA.
Over time, although Dreamwave artists continued to provide a lot of artwork for official products, they were not an exclusive source of artwork. Independent artists such as Marcelo Matare also worked on package art. Although Dreamwave is now bankrupt, Hasbro will likely continue to hire individual ex-Dreamwave artists for freelance TF work.
Ah, yes, "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence", right? After all, Takara releases more special toys, they sell lots of ancillary merchandise like books and figurines, and the TFs they design on their own -- without Hasbro's input -- are generally more intricate. Is this evidence of Takara's immense goodwill and love for its customers?
Well, no, not really. Takara may indeed produce more stuff that fans -- in general -- want to consume, but this is simply because the market for such items in Japan is very different than it is elsewhere (or, most specifically, in the USA). If Hasbro felt they could profit enough from selling capsule toys in American convenience stores to make it worth their while, they would do so. And if Takara found that it was no longer in their best interest to do that same thing, they would stop. Takara does in Japan what works for them in Japan, and Hasbro does in America what works for them in America. The fact that these are not always the same thing shouldn't surprise anybody, nor should it be cause for hostility. The US and Japan have very different retail environments and collector's markets. They don't even have the same culture.
So, basically, it's fine to like Japanese merchandise better if it happens to suit your tastes more. It's even pretty common among hardcore fans for that to be the case. The vast majority of the Transformers market in the USA is not hardcore collectors, though, so Hasbro can't afford to cater to us at all times. As such, Hasbro would basically have to be stupid to run its franchise the way Takara runs theirs. It is irrational to be angry with Hasbro about this. If you really feel that you must be angry with someone, be angry with your nation's buying culture.
For some time now, a large component of Takara's TF business has been to re-release toys in special, limited-edition collectible forms, as well as to sell inherently collectible items like blind-packed figurines. (Blind-packed means you don't know which one you're getting until after you've paid, like with trading cards.) They repeatedly release TFs in special all-clear or all-black variants. These toys are not especially "inspired" or interesting, but Takara continues to produce them for a fandom which they know will buy them.
Among their PVC-plastic "SCF" figurines there have been many rare "chase" figures. In the later sets, the chases have been individual pieces of larger robots such as Fort Max, which means that having just one or two chase "figures" doesn't do you any good; it just means you have, say, a torso with one leg. You need to get all of the rare chase pieces before any of them become useful. To make things even harder, all of the figures, chase and common, are shipped in two color schemes with equal rarity: regular and either clear or pewter. So you have to make sure all of your chase pieces match. And among many American fans, at least, the clear PVCs are practically worthless, which means that any PVC such a fan buys has a decent chance of being seen as a complete waste of their money.
Practices such as these on Takara's part have at times led to a backlash against them by American fans. The argument is, basically, that Takara is doing everything they can to squeeze extra yen out of their customers. They know there are completists out there who will buy pretty much anything, so they create things like the PVCs and Six-combiner reissues that allow them to sell the same exact item to a single fan over and over again until the fan gets the rare pieces they're looking for. Takara also doesn't have to bother putting any effort into their special-release items. Hence, all-black and all-clear, over and over again. Usually they are even presented as being the same character, just in black or clear for no real reason. Sometimes they make up a "new" character for the black ones: evil doubles of the original. After a while, this becomes a bit of a yawner. Limited-run exclusive repaints are more welcome when they are more interesting. So, some fans see this as Takara basically taking advantage of its fanbase with all the rehashing, while Hasbro continually makes new toys and new stories.
Really, though, this whole "Takara sux" vs "Hasbro sux" thing is basically a red herring. Both companies do whatever is in their best interest, which is all any company really does, and is all one can really expect from them. Takara does plenty of interesting, appealing things with their re-issues, including making new characters; it's not all black and clear. Furthermore, black and clear editions are something of a long-running tradition in the Japanese toy market. And even when it comes to new, high-demand items like the PVCs, every fan has to make an individual choice as to whether they want to try to get every rare piece. Doing so will cost a lot of money. No surprise there. If you don't want to spend that sort of money, then don't. Nobody is forcing you to be a completist. If these sorts of toys continue to make money for Takara, all that means is that the market in Japan supports such things, but the market in America apparently wouldn't. If it did, Hasbro would "take advantage", too.
Hasbro owns all the trademarks for TF terminology, names, character likenesses, and logos including the faction insignias. They have filed patents for some particular toy designs, and they are the only entity authorized to license out TF properties to other companies. Copyrights on TF fiction (like the G1 comic, the BM TV series, etc.) are owned by a variety of companies, depending on who has bought what from who, but to make any use of them requires a contract of some sort with Hasbro, who still control the property as a whole. (Except, of course, in Japan, where the rights are Takara's, or are shared between the two, probably in some complicated fashion.)
When it comes to fan-made materials, then: they're basically all violations, yeah. There is some wiggle room in the form of fair use, but not a lot. Essentially, any fanfic which is actually recognizable as being about Transformers is breaking intellectual property laws. At least, in the USA. However, obviously, not all intellectual property violations in this universe are prosecuted. At some level, Hasbro is obligated to object to such violations when they come to Hasbro's attention -- as is any owner of IP -- or take the risk that at some point in the future a court will decide they've given up their control of the material. However, as is the case with most corporations, they don't go out of their way to track down all the violations, and often turn a blind eye to things. One reason for this is that it's s simply not worth the time and money to shut down every single website or fan author. Another is that sending legal threats to your fans over trivial breaches tends to alienate them.
So, as long as you're not doing anything gratuitous (especially charging money for stuff you don't legally own), Hasbro will most likely pretend not to know about it. Realize, though, that in many ways this is a favor that they are doing for us. There are some more technical aspects, such as saying your picture is a depiction of the Transformers(TM) character so-and-so, rather than actually being so-and-so. It's a question of whether the language you use acknowledges Hasbro's rights in the matter. Here is a passage on the topic that was previously included in the OTFCC FAQ which describes this:
I would like to sell some fanmade items at the convention. Are there any potential copyright or trademark problems I should be worried about?
Yes there are. The problem comes down to how one labels their product. Hasbro owns and intends to fully protect their Transformers line, in any form. They have no problem with fans displaying their creations. The problems arise with fans selling their product as "Transformers" (which is a registered trademark) or when people abuse the moniker "Transformers" as a noun, when it should be an adjective (i.e., Transformers® brand figures). One cannot have a "Transformers® brand blanket," for example, without a license from Hasbro, because the name is owned by and can only be used with permission from Hasbro. One cannot have a "Lego Transformer of Hot Rod," but one can have a Lego construction of the Hot Rod™ character. One can have a drawing of Optimus Prime™ figure, a representation of Galvatron™, or a suncatcher featuring the likeness of Ravage™, BUT, no one is permitted to sell products together with the trademarks, unless under license from Hasbro. It boils down to how you present your product for sale or display. You must keep in mind NOT to use the trademark when labelling your wares, unless you are licensed by Hasbro. Hasbro understands how creative the line's fans are, but it is entirely within their right to make sure the trademark "Transformers" is not trivialized and abused. If that were allowed to happen, you couldn't rely on the quality of products you might buy under the affected names. If these guidelines are followed, there really is no problem with fans displaying their creativity and support for the line. The fans have to be considerate and thoughtful, however, when they advertise their sales. ANY PERSON WHO BRINGS FAN-CREATED MATERIAL FOR DISPLAY OR SALE DOES SO AT THEIR OWN RISK AND ASSUMES FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR MATERIAL. 3H PRODUCTIONS, INC. IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY MATERIAL YOU MAY BRING.
One thing that Hasbro has taken action against is the registering of internet domain names with trademarked terms. Ben Yee's popular site, BWTF.com, was long ago called "beastwars.net". Ben graciously handed the name over to Hasbro when they decided to reign such things in. Hasbro also (apparently) purchased beastmachines.com from an (apparent) squatter in late 1999. In late 2000 they took legal action against the then-owner of dinobot.org, although they backed down, perhaps as a result of pressure from fans. (You can read a brief, but first-hand account in the "about" section of "Dinobot"'s new site, negafox.com.) Unlike beastmachines.com, dinobot.org was not Transformers-related. This, or simply the different timeframe, may have had some bearing on Hasbro's different approaches to the two cases. On the other hand, the Lukis brothers have run a fansite at the address unicron.com for several years, and this doesn't seem to have bothered Hasbro at all even though "Unicron" is a term that they claim as a trademark. The difference here may be that there has never been a toyline called "Unicron", whereas there was, albeit briefly, a line called "Dinobots".
Another action Hasbro has taken in the past is sending cease and desist orders to websites that host pictures of stolen toys as "news" items, as discussed further in [N/A].
You have a few options, depending on what exactly you want. They have general customer service representatives who you can contact through their website or reach by phone. The appropriate site or number will depend on what country you're in, of course, but the main Hasbro site (www.hasbro.com) will be able to get you there eventually. This is the route to go if you want to ask about things like replacement parts or make general comments about the line. Do not ask random customer service reps about things like upcoming toys and the like because they will not know the answers. Or, if they provide an answer, it'll quite possibly be wrong. They simply don't have access to that sort of information. At one point during year two or three of Beast Wars there was a little fiasco in Feb 1999 when customer service operators told a fan that a deluxe-size "Transmetal II Rampage" figure was available for order through Hasbro Direct. It's still not clear whether their computers actually said Rampage or just Ram -- there were reports of both -- but the toy turned out to be just TMII Ramulus.
If you want to know nit-picky details about the Transformers line (which is likely, if you're reading this document) then your best bet is to go to places where Hasbro's Transformers team will be making appearances, such as OTFCC, WizardWorld, etc.. The official TF site run by Hasbro has a Q&A section where such things are revealed on an intermittant basis. (For a while it was once a week or so.) The questions are answered by TF staffer Aaron Archer, who used to post to the TFW2005 boards with the username "Orson", but after a big fued between different parts of the fandom, he left TFW for neutral territory. He is a wonderful resource; it's not often that a fandom has direct access to one of the top people in charge of their franchise. However, keep in mind that Aaron doesn't have time to answer every question (typically he does about three at a time when they are doing updates) and also that he doesn't know everything. He generally doesn't know what Takara's plans are, he doesn't handle store-exclusive toys in the US, he doesn't do marketing, and so on. He does, however, know about designing and producing toys and planning lines.
Improving. Around the year 2000 they were having a lot of trouble, which led to the closing of their Cincinnati branch, as well as a lot of layoffs in various subdivisions like Wizards of the Coast. Their hard times are typically blamed on the disappointment of the Star Wars prequels (and consequent low sales of SW toys) and an unexpectedly early decline of Pokemon, which they were heavily invested in. On the other hand, the toy industry as a whole has been suffering since the late 1990's as kids are trying to grow up sooner (meaning less time for play) and spending more money on video games and computers than traditional toys.
Here's some industry sales data from the Toy Industry Association. The point of including this is to show general trends in the industry. These, naturally, have an effect on Hasbro. Note that the numbers are a little inconsistant with each other from report to report, which is why I've repeated the columns for each year. Probably the second figure for a given year is more accurate, but, they're both there just in case. All amounts are in millions (10^6) of US dollars.
| 1996 | 1997 | Growth | 1997 | 1998 | Growth | 1998 | 1999 | Growth | 1999 | 2000 | Growth | |
| ACTION FIGURE TOYS |
832 | 1,055 | +26.80% | 1,046 | 907 | -13.30% | 907 | 1,123 | +23.80% | 1,123 | 823 | -26.70% |
| Action Figures | 647 | 784 | 784 | 725 | 725 | 870 | 870 | 635 | ||||
| Accessories | 143 | 218 | 218 | 153 | 153 | 195 | 195 | 160 | ||||
| Role Play | 42 | 53 | 44 | 29 | 29 | 58 | 58 | 28 | ||||
| TOTAL TRADITIONAL TOYS |
14,138 | 15,240 | +7.80% | 15,255 | 15,215 | -0.30% | 15,559 | 16,928 | +8.80% | 16,644 | 16,412 | -1.40% |
| VIDEO GAMES | 2,940 | 4,276 | +45.40% | 4,253 | 5,106 | +20.10% | 4,855 | 5,460 | +12.50% | 5,460 | 5,134 | -6.00% |
These numbers all come from TIA fact books as published on their website. More detailed information can be found there in their fact book publications. Sadly, they no longer offer old archived fact books, so you'll have to trust me that I copied/pasted the numbers correctly. At least some of old reports can be found in the Internet Wayback machine, though, so for posterity here are the original URLs for the reports:
Regarding Transformers sales in particular, we have been told that Armada sold extremely well for Hasbro. In fact, it did so well that some "filler" toys were thrown in to make sure there was enough new product. (This refers to the BW Transmetal toys who were repainted for the line and fitted with Powerlinx hardpoints.) In the press release in which Hasbro announced the DeSanto/Murphy movie deal, they said "TRANSFORMERS is one of the most popular boys toy brands, with sales up 64% in 2002 vs. 2001." An infographic from USA Today reported that from January to April 2003, Transformers was the third most lucrative toy license, behind #1 Yu-Gi-Oh and #2 Power Rangers. In December 2003, a news clipping using data from the "International Council of Shopping Centers" ranked the top items being requested by boys for Christmas: #1 GameBoy Advance, #2 Hot Wheels T-Wrecks, #3 G.I. Joe products, #4 Transformers.
Even more recently, the 2004 TIA factbook cited Transformers as one of the "retro" brands which has come back; they reported TF sales had a small growth of +9% when comparing 2003 to 2004 sales. (Here 2003 means Nov 2002 - Oct 2003, and 2004 means Nov 2003 - Oct 2004.) This is a small growth -- especially compared to growth in the same time period for fellow retro brands TMNT (+229%) and My Little Pony (+433%) -- but it's still a growth, and total action figure sales over the same period dropped by 5%, so that's a sign of a strong brand. Still, after riding high for several years, it could be that TF is going to become a smaller force for a little while. Even if the brand starts going into decline, that doesn't mean it's the end of the world. TFs could lose quite a lot of their sales numbers and still be profitable, and the last several years have shown that Hasbro sees Transformers as one of its "core brands" that it intends to stick with for the long haul.
Doing better. Takara had some rough times during the period they were releasing Web Diver and Car Robots. In the Japanese fiscal years ending March 1999 and 2000 (JFY 1998 and 1999), they had a profit of only 346 million yen and then a 5.7 billion yen loss. (Dates of the fiscal year vary from nation to nation. In the USA it ends at the end of September, not March. Also, a yen is very roughly equal to about one US cent. It varies, but the point is it's a cent-sized unit, not dollar sized.) Shortly afterwards, games maker Konami invested 3.3 billion yen in Takara to buy a nearly 25% stake in the company. (They later sold that stock to a mobile game maker called Index Corp. in April 2005.) The success of Beyblade and eKara have also apparently been significant. In JFY 2000, they posted a profit of 1.63 billion yen, followed by 5.96 and 3.99 billion in JFY 2001 and JFY 2002.
Steve-o's Transformers FAQ is written and maintained by Steve-o
Stonebraker
(sstoneb@gmail.com).
Steve-o and this FAQ are not affiliated in any way with Hasbro,
which owns trademarks on many of the terms used within. This FAQ is
presented for the entertainment and reference of Transformers
fans, and is made available under the terms of a
Creative
Commons License