Well, the upcoming Figure King magazine (number 239) sheds some light on that and clarifies that indeed what we are seeing is true and intended to be the very same toys. There will be three pages dedicated to Takara's Transformers and the Snakas blog reports that we will not only see the same Power of the Primes toys we have already seen (and which many of us already own) but it will also discuss the new path Takara is taking with figures being identical to Hasbro. The Snakas blog quotes the magazine to say that the companies are "unifying the world brands on an unprecedented scale".
This does confirm the fears many fans had, where Takara is choosing not to do their own take on Generations toys, unlike what has been the case with the Legends line so far. While the movie toys have already been very similar between brands in the past, having other lines be identical at the same time is indeed unprecedented.
This definitely confirms that both companies are looking at their own markets first and foremost and that issuing the same toys for both markets must be more beneficial than the added money of imports. Or at least, this is what would seem to be the case with such an unprecedented decision.
While it does mean that the same deco from Hasbro's Power of the Primes will also be seen in the Takara releases under the same toyline name (which so far excludes complete combiner teams), it does bring about the idea that maybe Takara is satisfied with the deco for their own market. Jazz for instance is a deluxe combiner which uses clear plastic and thus demands a lot more paint and the only combining deluxe to also need that was Groove which was a Takara design. So instead of seeing this as Takara lowering their standards for deco, it could be that this unified deco instead takes the Hasbro deco to higher standards than before. What do you think? Let us know!
Takara

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 ).
 ). And since there have been more than just one line as well.
 And since there have been more than just one line as well. 
   
   
  sales...'nuff said.
 sales...'nuff said.  
  
