#Takatoku Toys

[laboitediabolique]

Print advertisement for the "X-Bomber" Big Dai X Alloy toy, Takatoku Toys, 1980

[pocoslip]

What's your Favourite G1 Transformers Toy that isn't made by Takara but brought to America be Hasbro????

(I never got any of the G1 Transformers Toys because I'm Born near 2000)

[acmeoop]

Autobot Air Guardian (1985)

Jetfire - Transformers (Hasbro)

[pabsterthelobster]

The Deluxe Insecticons were a quadrio of Decepticons with insect alternate modes sold during the second year of the Transtormers toyline. Consisting of Venom the cicada, Chop Shop the stag beetle, Barrage the rhinoceros beetle, and Ransack the grasshopper, these four were different from the cheaper non-Deluxe trio of Insecticons that most people were familiar with, as their toys were originally designed by Artmic as part of the Armored Insect Corps Beetras toyline by Takatoku Toys, rather than by Takara for their own Diaclone toyline.

Each Insecticon was originally designed as an Insecter mecha to be piloted by one of Beetras' main cast members. Barrage was originally Beet-Gadol, Chop Shop was originally Beet-Gugal, Venom was Beet-Zeguna, and Ransack was Beet-Vadam (whose toy went unreleased by the time Takatoku collapsed). Alongside these four was a fifth, female mecha named Beet-Papil, themed after a ladybug. In addition, an attempt to refresh the brand as Beet Seven renamed the mecha Beet-Leide, giving her old name to a new mecha themed after a butterfly, as well as creating a new firefly-themed mecha dubbed Beet-Bigal. None of these three designs have been reused as inspiration for any new Transformers characters.

[princess-viola]

honestly i fuckin love bootleg and knock-off toys, especially when it's a decent quality KO of a toy that's pretty expensive if you want a real one

legit just yesterday got one of those $30 happy well KOs of the old 1/55 takatoku macross valkyries. it's all-plastic and has some surface detail molding difference but it's otherwise identical in size to a legit takatoku (or bandai reissue); fully transformable; has all the articulation; the plastic quality, while i obviously can't compare it to a legit one, isn't really that far off what you'd get from like a transformer around the same price. it doesn't feel like one of those KOs where you just know it's gonna break from just playing with it a bit, y'know?

obviously i'd fucking love to get a legit 1/55 valkyrie toy one day (and i'm someone who's cool with reissues, i don't need to get one literally from the 80s) but - just from a quick glance on ebay - the cheapest ones in good condition are around $200? i can't fucking drop $200 like that right now.

but $30? hell yeah i can. and i did. and it's cool.

[rich4you]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Vintage TT Takatoku Tin Friction Indian Chief on Horse, Japan.

[maplesamurai]

#i have several questions#transformers

Okay, so to explain the first part of this, we have to introduce two unrelated characters from the 80s Transformers toyline, with coincidentally similar designs.

This is Shockwave. Decepticon military operations commander, he has a cold, logic driven worldview that makes him liable to try to seize command from Megatron should he run the numbers and conclude that he would be the more effective leader. The original toy was made by Japanese comapny ToyCo as "Four Changeable Astro Magnum" before being licensed for Transformers.

This is Whirl. Almost the polar opposite to Shockwave, this attack helicopter Autobot favours reckless, erratic tactics in combat, believing such seeming insanity is the perfect weapon of terror against his enemies. Originally made by Takatoku Toys as part of the toyline for the mecha anime Special Armored Battalion Dorvack, Whirl's Bandai affiliated origins denied him an appearance in the American Marvel comic and animated series for the same reasons that made Jetfire such a legal headache, but he did appear in the UK Marvel comic as part of the Wreckers, an Autobot commando unit in that continuity.

So what do these two unrelated bots have to do with this "empurata" concept? Well, despite being originally made by different companies for unrelated toylines, you'll notice these two have very similar cyclops like faces. This was never acknowledged in any media (hell, I can't even named any instances where these two had ever met each other) until James Roberts' run on IDW Publishing's Transformers comics, where the shared cyclops design as given a downright horrific explanation.

Established when Whirl gave his backstory at gunpoint while being held hostage by Fortress Maximus (long story), empurata was a ritualized punishment practised by Cybertron's oppressive pre-war regime where criminals where punished by removing the criminals hands and face and replacing them with faceless, one-eyed heads and claw-like digits so every law-abiding citizen knew to shun them. Press-ganged into becoming a Senate enforcer after being punished for becoming a watchmaker instead of working a job assigned to his alt mode, Whirl had originally resisted carrying out the Senate's dirty work until they subjected him to the tradition, forever ruining his watchmaking dreams.

This practice became a further plot point where during the flashback arc Shadowplay, where a bunch of our regular characters in this run attempt to repair ship therapist Rung's brain by telling a story (I swear that makes sense in context) of an incident on pre-war Cybertron where a bunch of them got involved in a Senate conspiracy to use the titular shadowplay procedure to reprogram political dissidents (namely those from the burgeoning Decepticon revolution) into obedient citizens. While the conspiracy itself was foiled, the arc ended with the group's Senator benefactor being found out by his fellows and hauled off to be shadowplayed to replace his compassionate personality with cold, unfeeling logic, along with some empurata just for good measure. Said Senator's name?

Okay, so that explains empurata, so what does movieverse Optimus have to do with face removal? Well...

...Look, sometimes the TFWiki editors just like having fun writing these, okay?

Look, this is the funniest thing on tfwiki, okay?

[cyborg00-why]

Box ID from left to right:

Takatoku Toys Chogokin Die-cast Cyborg 009 Joe Shimamura Figure circa 1979

Mark Plastic Model Kit circa 1981

Imai Mini Model Kit circa 1997

image source x

[himitsusentaiblog]

The cover of a 1974 Toy Catalog for Ultraman Leo from Takatoku Toys.

Takatoku toys was a rival or Popy (a division of Bandai) in the 1970s and early 1980s.  They copied Popy’s use of Die-Cast metal in plastic figures.  Today, they are best known for their Valkyrie toys from 1982′s Super Dimensional Fortress Macross anime which were licensed to Habro after Takatoku’s demise to become the Transformer Jetfire.

[rufusdayglo]

Unpacking old friends. Let the invasion begin!!! #robotswilltakeovertheworld #gundam #takatoku #dougram #ideon #tetsujin #goldlightan #dxclover #takara #diaclone #popy #toys #robots #diecast https://www.instagram.com/p/ByaB_ZkBKuj/?igshid=x6k4gkd03q4x

[cheapsweets]

When I first saw it back when I was young, this was some of the coolest art I had ever seen. Nice to know it still holds up (particularly the dinobots fighting the insecticons - IN SPACE- in the first one, although Optimus obviously started working out following his appearance in that second picture :D )

The first and third pictures above were painted by Jeffrey Mangiat, the second one by David Schleinkofer, and I've done some digging but unfortunately can't confirm who painted the last one.

Regarding the Valkyrie, it's there because it was a redeco (recolour) of a licenced Macross toy made by Takatoku toys, purchased by Bandai after they went under in 1984 and licenced to Hasbro to include in the Transformers line around 1985 (as at the time Bandai didn't have a big presence in the Americas, so it was easier for them to licence their moulds to other companies).

Of course, there were inevitably licencing issues as time went on, so Jetfire (the toy) was renamed to Skyfire in the original comics/animated series, and heavily restyled!

If you want to know more, you could do worse than checking out the transformers Wiki (though if you're anything like me, you'll end up link surfing for hours...)

Having seen one in person, genuinely one of the coolest toys I've never owned!

Key Box Art from the first four years of Transformers, 1983-1987.

[frogshunnedshadows]

A few transforming robots from the Beetras series. They transform from beetle / cicada / grasshopper (?) into robots, and vice versa. Made by Takatoku, 1984.

[alienrobotmonster]

Love the original Takatoku packaging for the paro (parody) Valkyrie. I saw this after the Convertors blister carded version of the toy here in the U.S. #macrossmonday #vf1j #robotech #hikaruichijo #minmay #maxsterling #takatoku #takatokutoys #battroid #superdeformed https://www.instagram.com/p/CcgpbgBvxeA/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[oraclememehacker]

Toys for All ages

Location: Sakura Household: Futaba’s room Time: Morning

It was another normal day in the Sakura household. Well, as normal as it could get with a chaotic hacker phantom thief living there anyways. The sound of light rain falling all over Yongen-Jaya could be heard as a rainstorm was starting to make its way through. Futaba could hear the occasional clap of thunder as the storm was getting closer to her area. She was just hoping it wasn’t bad enough to interrupt the internet and especially not the power. Thankfully she had everything hooked up to UPS and such so she can deal with it. Still, that was going through her mind every time she heard a storm rumble through the area.

Checking the weather on the app on her computer, the worst of the storms were scheduled to come through this morning followed by rain for the rest of the day and the occasional rumble of thunder and bursts of rain. Well, that meant she wasn’t really going outside unless she needed to which was fine. As she was starting to start scrolling through social media she heard a few light knocks on the door. “Come in.” Futaba yelled and Sojiro made his way in, with a small smile on his face. “Good morning Futaba. Glad to see you up at a reasonable time when  you don’t have school.”

Futaba always appreciated Sojiro looking after her like this, even though her most depressive and self reclusive phase in her life. Without him he would’ve been dead and she basically owed him with her life really. “I actually got woke up by that loud clap of thunder earlier. Are you heading to work soon?” Futaba inquired since it was around that time that Sojiro would be heading to open up the cafe. She would have that inquiry confirmed. “Yeah, I doubt I’m going to have many customers with this rain though.”

“Well, be careful then. The storm is about to come through and from the looks of it it’s going to be pretty rough. I might show up to get some coffee though. I need caffeine. My sleep stat needs to go down.” She definitely needed some power juice as it were for sure but that could wait for now. “Sure, you be careful as well. Just don’t make too much of a ruckus alright? Last thing I need is something being destroyed by accident.” Sheesh, that was a bit of a thing for sure. “I’m off, behave yourself Futaba.” “Can’t make any promises there Sojiro!”

Watching her father walk out of the room just shaking his head and mumbling to himself she went to do what she normally did, checking social media to see what was going on. There was a lot of political stuff, pertaining to elections and parliament, new laws getting passed and so on. She was also keeping up on the latest video games and what was going on. Plus anytime someone posted Neo feather man fan art she posted it immediately. Because she had to. And she would stare at her intricately placed action figures and just have a big grin on her face.

Something did catch her eye though, there was some juicy rumors about a toy company who was apparently back after going bankrupt. Takatoku Toys. They made toy robots and other things for the market. There were rumors about why they went bankrupt in the first place, and they went down some pretty dark paths. It made her raise an eyebrow. But the thing that really got her attention was the fact that despite it being back, it seemed like there was barely any record of it coming back, and being as popular as it was didn’t make much sense besides brand recognition.

“Huh. This is all new to me.” She decided to look into this because it was intriguing, and as she was doing sweeps of the company and what not something weird was going on. She couldn’t find any record of this company coming back in any capacity. No reports, no filings, nothing. There wasn’t any evidence that this was just a name being used by another company, and none of the last owners of the company were back either cause they were all dead. What the hell was going on? Well, she decided this was definitely worth investigating and decided to contact Ryuji to tell him. And to mess with him

[Text to: Ryuji.]

Futaba: Hey! Are you busy?

Futaba: Ryuji: No Futaba, I’m not.

Futaba: Good. Come over to my house immediately.

Futaba: Careful of the storm of course : ). You Getting zapped would be very inconvenient for me.

She awaited his response while researching some things again. Man, this was quite a conundrum that was for sure. Why was this company so popular? Was it really just brand recognition? That would make sense to an extent but she hadn’t heard anything about it until social media was propping up rumors about the circumstances surrounding it’s return. And that was causing some red flags to pop up in her mind. “We’ll get to the bottom of this toybox.”

[pabsterthelobster]

Well for one, Headcannon is physically based on the Bonaparte Tulcas mecha from the anime Special Armored Battalion Dorvack. The toyline for the anime was done by Takatoku Toys, which also included figures for the other two mecha, Mugen Calibur and Ovelon Gazzette. Hasbro licensed the latter two figures from Takatoku to be included in the Transformers toyline, turning them into the Autobot Deluxe Vehicles we know as Roadbuster and Whirl. Tulcas was originally planned to be licensed as well, but was ultimately excluded from the toyline.

His only proper appearance in fiction was in the Transformers: Timelines comic "Hoist the Flag", where he was among the Autobots who got bombed by the Star Seekers in the opening scene. He went unnamed in the story itself, so it was Ask Vector Prime that would give him the name Headcannon a year later. Apparently, he likes to write "botfiction" of some of the characters from Crosscut's works as a playwright.

Now, there's not much on him aside from that, aside a proposed name for the character being Landfire as revealed at BotCon 2014, but personally, I'd headcanon (heh heh) at least one version of him as being a part of the Wreckers, solely for the fact that his fellow Dorvack transplants are also members.

You misspelled the term "headcanon" in your Tumblr blog name. Now, there is a character named Headcannon (representing the Bonaparte Tulcas figure from the Dorvack toyline that didnt make it into the Transformers toyline, unlike Roadbuster and Whirl), but I don't think you made this blog to talk exclusively about him.

I

WHAT?!

YOU'RE BEEN MEANING TO TELL ME THAT FOR THE ALMOST 8-9 YEARS THIS BLOG HAS BEEN AROUND I HAD THIS MISPELLED?!

But I am always down for fun facts so please: Tell me more about this Headcannon character

[fedhai]

Zubogu from Megaloman by Takatoku #zubogu #takatoku #takatokutoys #megaloman #kaiju #sofubi #sofvi #softvinyl #softvinyltoy #sofvitokyo #japanesevinyl #japanesetoys #arttoy #toyphotography #toy #toys #toystagram #toycollector #toys4life #popart #designertoy #madeinjapan #instagood #picoftheday #monster https://www.instagram.com/fedhai/p/BPbWqwxjdxF/?igshid=opyki3sqa9f6