Takara

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Takara
Founded: 1955
Defunct: 2006
T-series code: T-103, T-146
Merged with: Tomy (2006)
Headquarters:
Japan

Takara Co., Ltd. (タカラ) was a Japanese toy company. The company motto was 「遊びは文化」(asobi wa bunka) which means "playing is culture."

Despite publishing video games from as early as 1983, Takara made their name in the video game industry in the early 1990s, porting SNK's Neo Geo titles to the likes of the Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. It moved onto publishing Tamsoft's 3D fighting game series Battle Arena Toshinden and numerous other Japanese-only titles.

It purchased a controlling stake in Atlus in 2003, and many of Takara's licenses were published under that name.

March 1, 2006 saw the company merge with Tomy to create Takara Tomy. The company still outputs video games, but is more focused on the toy manufacturing business, selling many of Hasbro's products in Japan and producing its own Microman, Transformers, Battle Beasts, Beyblade and B-Daman toys, just to name a few.

Softography

References

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