Tomi Automobile GmbH

Tomy Company, Ltd.[1] (株式会社タカラトミー, Kabushikigaisha takaratomī, Takara Tomy; d/b/a Tomy outside of most of Asia) is a Japanese entertainment company that makes children's toys and merchandise. It was created from a merger on 1 March 2006 of two companies: Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963)[4] and long-time rival Takara (founded in 1955).[4] The company has its headquarters in Katsushika, Tokyo. 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. 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 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 and created the successful Wedding Peach and 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.[5] 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.