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This has been covered many times before, sorry but ive not got time to find the link.
But the short answer is Hasbro is the USA side of things while Takara are the Japan end of things. Two different companies, so thats where the differences come from, but of course it's not as straight forward as that.

Different market, different buying habits,different culture.

fenrir72 wrote:Different market, different buying habits,different culture.

Bingo. In Japan, Takara must compete on the shelves with the likes of companies like Bandai, who don't slouch on quality or paint apps. Their 'toys' look a lot nicer than what we've grown accustomed to from Hasbro (and other toy makers) in the US.

Japan is a collectors' market, so they expect more. US toy companies for the most part still seem to think that only/mostly children buy toys. Of course, you pay a higher price for a figure in Japan than you do in the US I believe, so price is certainly a major factor as well.

Takara's Prime figures feature fewer paint apps than Hasbro's.

I don't believe there's a substantial overall difference in quality. You may have seen differences in a few figures you've bought, but that's anecdotal evidence at best.

And then there's everything xyl360 said above.

GuyIncognito wrote:Takara's Prime figures feature fewer paint apps than Hasbro's.

Yep, and I think that's because in Japan they're still really into model kits and such. That's why they have the Arms Microns (and we don't) and they have stickers. With such small/cheapy looking toys, it makes sense to get the bang for your buck by getting a model kit to build instead of a malnourished Deluxe .

Of course, then there's their Generations offerings. I thought for certain that with the way things have been going, Takara might at best do a few minor paint mods to the FoC figures. I was way wrong. They put tons of paint onto the ones I've seen so far. They really do look like collectors' items for what they are.

Now, as for MP-10, I have the Takara version, I don't have the Hasbro version, but I've seen picture comparisons and video comparisons aplenty and aside from some of the colors (and the yellow paint on the lights on the top of the cab), I see no real difference. My Takara version has a leg panel on the front that doesn't like to stay in place unless I get it just right, and it usually takes several tries. It's a common issue, not one limited to the Hasbro release. Honestly, I'm shocked that Hasbro was able to release it as complete as it was and for the price that they did. MP-10 is one of the few imports in a really long time that I think Hasbro got right. Hopefully we'll see more like this in the future.

Hasbro uses Takara's molds, the original G1 figures say Takara Hasbro on them, somewhere down the line Hasbro separated from Takara (or vice versa) but Hasbro still uses all of their molds. You won't see a Hasbro figure/mold that's not also produced exclusively by Takara in Japan. With that said, all of the molds/figures should operate the same, but you're going to see massive amounts of redeco's, i.e. Takara Nemesis Prime (AM) vs. Takara Dark Guard Prime vs. Hasbro Optimus Prime (Voyager - Prime line) vs. Takara Optimus Prime (AM) and so on, and so on. But all of those figures are built from the same mold just look different. As someone pointed out above, Takara uses much less paint on their figures than Hasbro. Takara still uses the old school method on many of their figures which is stickers. I do like some of the Hasbro figures better because of this. I really think the whole fascination behind Takara products is two fold: the rarity and the exclusive figures that Hasbro might not offer, i.e. AM-19 Gaia Unicron. Hasbro still doesn't have a "Prime" Unicron and might not, so that's why I ordered it from Takara. I may be wrong on some of the above points, but that's how I see it! Anyway, hope this helps!

slimjim0 wrote:Hasbro uses Takara's molds, the original G1 figures say Takara Hasbro on them, somewhere down the line Hasbro separated from Takara (or vice versa) but Hasbro still uses all of their molds. You won't see a Hasbro figure/mold that's not also produced exclusively by Takara in Japan.

You sure about all that? I think you've got some misinformation. Hasbro never separated from Takara (or vice versa); they were never "together" in the first place. I'm pretty sure that Hasbro designs some of the molds themselves. And I think the reason G1 molds said "Takara Hasbro" was because the two companies were sharing the license, not because they were one company.

slimjim0 wrote:Hasbro uses Takara's molds,

Hasbro used Takara's molds. Takara uses Hasbro's molds in FoC & Prime.

You won't see a Hasbro figure/mold that's not also produced exclusively by Takara in Japan.

Meanwhile, Prime and FoC figures were released here first.