“Japan’s toymakers battle over Barbie”
Using the Google newspaper archives can lead to some unexpected discoveries. For example, this article from the June 28, 1986 issue of the Boca Raton News in which Barbie and Transformers compete for Takara’s attention in Japan. It’s no contest: according to the article Takara sold $33 million in Barbie toys in 1985 and $300 million in Transformers toys during the same period.
The issue, as outlined in the article, is that Mattel was worried Takara’s relationship with Hasbro could lead to Takara leaking Mattel secrets to Hasbro. The toy industry has been big money for many years, and here we see evidence from almost three decades ago of how protective the bigger corporations could get with their product lines and plans.
One of my favorite quotes in the article supports what I learned while researching Each Sold Separately*:
Mattel says Takara didn’t try. Figures such as Masters of the Universe (He-Man) need stories on television to sell, but “Takara never tried to get it on TV,” [Fred] Tang [managing director for Mattel Asia Ltd. at the time] said.
Here’s the entire article if you would like to read more.
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