Re: Takara Tomy Transformers Adventure Line (TAV, TED, Misc)
Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 4:51 pm
Hey Hellscream, I saw your question on whether or not Hasbro can use a mold Takara made in house and I dont know the answer. I have had that question for as long as I have been collecting. In G1, the design was all Takara and Hasbro licensed out the toys. But with Beast Wars, it was all Hasbro's idea. And they commissioned Takara to do the engineering based off their designs. Takara then made their own in house designs and Hasbro never distributed them (Korea did though, in the same way that Hasbro had licensed Takara toys for G1, which is why you can have dirt cheap Beast Wars Neo toys made in amazing Takara quality). However, Hasbro did eventually use some of those molds in later lines, like Guiledart for it<s Dinobot line and Big Convoy as Nemesis Prime for the Universe line. So there is precedent for Hasbro repurposing a Takara design.
Even recently, funpub used the Takara in house designed Tranformers Prime Breakdown mold to make their Botcon 2015 Megatron (which sucks cause its a mold everyone wanted and it's now here as simply another megatron toy and more expensive than the actual Takara product).
So there is precedent for Hasbro using a Takara designed mold but I have no examples of using it for the same line aside from the Masterpiece line (with years in delay and far from every figure accounted for). Which means that I am really not sure this cool Optimus toy will see a stateside release, and same goes with the Takara deluxe Groove.
Also, Hasbro never distributed the Takara Infinity toys either. That's a whole line of Takara designed molds we will never see here and it is a very recent example.
Even recently, funpub used the Takara in house designed Tranformers Prime Breakdown mold to make their Botcon 2015 Megatron (which sucks cause its a mold everyone wanted and it's now here as simply another megatron toy and more expensive than the actual Takara product).
So there is precedent for Hasbro using a Takara designed mold but I have no examples of using it for the same line aside from the Masterpiece line (with years in delay and far from every figure accounted for). Which means that I am really not sure this cool Optimus toy will see a stateside release, and same goes with the Takara deluxe Groove.
Also, Hasbro never distributed the Takara Infinity toys either. That's a whole line of Takara designed molds we will never see here and it is a very recent example.