The Energon Pub

Hi all.

Sorry for the noob question....but I'm trying real hard to understand the differences between all the different companies/makers of like toys.

Can someone illustrate for me the difference between like toys for:

- Takara
- Henkei
and
- Hasbro

???

I definitely notice some cosmetic differences, but overall, what's the lowdown?

Thanks guys.

gbm

I'll preface this with [url]TFwiki.net[/url] is your best friend.

Takara is the company that provides to Japan only. Hasbro provides for the rest of the world. Molds are created as a joint venture between the two companies.

United, Henkei! Henkei!, and Gentei! Gentei! are Takara's "classics" toylines.

Classics, Universe, and Generations are Hasbro's "classics" toylines.

People often use the term "Chug" for short, meaning Classics, Henkei, Universe, Generations/Gentei, to refer to any release of a "classics" character under one of those lines. There are tons of lines, but you'll memorize all of the shorthand before long.

Diaclone - The Pre-transformers toyline which largely became Transformers
G1 - Generation 1 toys from the 80's
G2 - Gen 2 toys from the early 90's
BW - Beast Wars
BM - Beast Machines
RiD - Robots in Disguise , called Car Robots in Japan
UT - Unicron Trilogy, consisting of Armada, Energon, and Cybertron
AEC - see above
ML - Micron Legends, Armada in Japan
SL - Super Link, Energon in Japan
GF - Galaxy Force, Cybertron in Japan
Universe/Universe 1.0 - The 2003 Universe line, which started the trend of repainting existing molds as older characters
Alternators/Binaltech - A toyline and fiction in which all of the altmodes are licensed scale models
Movie - anything from the '07 Michael Bay movie line
TFA - Transformers Animated
Universe 2.0 - the 2008 Universe line, which continued the trend from the first Universe line
Rotf - Revenge of the Fallen
Rts and Hftd - Reveal the Shield and Hunt for the Decepticons imprint lines from the Rotf line
Prid - Prime Robots in Disguise, the current line for the Transformers Prime cartoon
dotm - Dark of the moon

Check out the link for more info.
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Universe_%282003_toyline%29

RAcast wrote:I'll preface this with [url]TFwiki.net[/url] is your best friend.

Takara is the company that provides to Japan only. Hasbro provides for the rest of the world. Molds are created as a joint venture between the two companies.

United, Henkei! Henkei!, and Gentei! Gentei! are Takara's "classics" toylines.

Classics, Universe, and Generations are Hasbro's "classics" toylines.

People often use the term "Chug" for short, meaning Classics, Henkei, Universe, Generations/Gentei, to refer to any release of a "classics" character under one of those lines. There are tons of lines, but you'll memorize all of the shorthand before long.

awesome, thank you for the info, and that link! I'll go read up.

Do people prefer certain company figures over others? I noticed that the Henkei Hound is 10x better looking than the Classic reissue Hound.

gbm wrote:

RAcast wrote:I'll preface this with [url]TFwiki.net[/url] is your best friend.

Takara is the company that provides to Japan only. Hasbro provides for the rest of the world. Molds are created as a joint venture between the two companies.

United, Henkei! Henkei!, and Gentei! Gentei! are Takara's "classics" toylines.

Classics, Universe, and Generations are Hasbro's "classics" toylines.

People often use the term "Chug" for short, meaning Classics, Henkei, Universe, Generations/Gentei, to refer to any release of a "classics" character under one of those lines. There are tons of lines, but you'll memorize all of the shorthand before long.

awesome, thank you for the info, and that link! I'll go read up.

Do people prefer certain company figures over others? I noticed that the Henkei Hound is 10x better looking than the Classic reissue Hound.

It's no "reissue", more like a reimagining of the character.

Some people do prefer the TakaraTomy versions, with more paint and greater accuracy to the cartoon at times, but they do fetch a heftier price.

Hasbro's Generations Hound is just...really bland. Takara did such a nice job with the paint scheme on theirs though, plus the nice olive green just looks better.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

gbm wrote:

RAcast wrote:I'll preface this with [url]TFwiki.net[/url] is your best friend.

Takara is the company that provides to Japan only. Hasbro provides for the rest of the world. Molds are created as a joint venture between the two companies.

United, Henkei! Henkei!, and Gentei! Gentei! are Takara's "classics" toylines.

Classics, Universe, and Generations are Hasbro's "classics" toylines.

People often use the term "Chug" for short, meaning Classics, Henkei, Universe, Generations/Gentei, to refer to any release of a "classics" character under one of those lines. There are tons of lines, but you'll memorize all of the shorthand before long.

awesome, thank you for the info, and that link! I'll go read up.

Do people prefer certain company figures over others? I noticed that the Henkei Hound is 10x better looking than the Classic reissue Hound.

It's no "reissue", more like a reimagining of the character.

Some people do prefer the TakaraTomy versions, with more paint and greater accuracy to the cartoon at times, but they do fetch a heftier price.

YES! The first thing I noticed was the price difference. Boo.

gbm wrote:

RAcast wrote:I'll preface this with [url]TFwiki.net[/url] is your best friend.

Takara is the company that provides to Japan only. Hasbro provides for the rest of the world. Molds are created as a joint venture between the two companies.

United, Henkei! Henkei!, and Gentei! Gentei! are Takara's "classics" toylines.

Classics, Universe, and Generations are Hasbro's "classics" toylines.

People often use the term "Chug" for short, meaning Classics, Henkei, Universe, Generations/Gentei, to refer to any release of a "classics" character under one of those lines. There are tons of lines, but you'll memorize all of the shorthand before long.

awesome, thank you for the info, and that link! I'll go read up.

Do people prefer certain company figures over others? I noticed that the Henkei Hound is 10x better looking than the Classic reissue Hound.

As a general rule of thumb the Henkei figures tend to have bettr paint jobs but also they all have chromed parts which some people don't like, and they're more expensive. The Henkei figures also tend to be more cartoon-accurate while the Classics tend to be more G1 toy accurate (most notably Astrotrain and Mirage)

Some of the Classics/Universe figures are definitely inferior to their Japanese counterparts, especially Hound, Megatron, Dinobot, Onslaught and Hot Shot (who is missing accessories that came with the Japanese version)

Diem wrote:

gbm wrote:

RAcast wrote:I'll preface this with [url]TFwiki.net[/url] is your best friend.

Takara is the company that provides to Japan only. Hasbro provides for the rest of the world. Molds are created as a joint venture between the two companies.

United, Henkei! Henkei!, and Gentei! Gentei! are Takara's "classics" toylines.

Classics, Universe, and Generations are Hasbro's "classics" toylines.

People often use the term "Chug" for short, meaning Classics, Henkei, Universe, Generations/Gentei, to refer to any release of a "classics" character under one of those lines. There are tons of lines, but you'll memorize all of the shorthand before long.

awesome, thank you for the info, and that link! I'll go read up.

Do people prefer certain company figures over others? I noticed that the Henkei Hound is 10x better looking than the Classic reissue Hound.

As a general rule of thumb the Henkei figures tend to have bettr paint jobs but also they all have chromed parts which some people don't like, and they're more expensive. The Henkei figures also tend to be more cartoon-accurate while the Classics tend to be more G1 toy accurate (most notably Astrotrain and Mirage)

Some of the Classics/Universe figures are definitely inferior to their Japanese counterparts, especially Hound, Megatron, Dinobot, Onslaught and Hot Shot (who is missing accessories that came with the Japanese version)

Wow, I'm so glad I asked. I'm learning a ton!