Things you never realised about Transformers (toys etc)

[GoktimusPrime]

I only just noticed that the mastodon Fossiliser's name is Masterdominus. DOMINVS means "master" in Latin, so "Masterdominus" means Master Master.

e.g. DOMINVSSERVVMSALVTAT = "The master greets the slave."

[Tha_Phantom]

I only just noticed that the mastodon Fossiliser's name is Masterdominus. DOMINVS means "master" in Latin, so "Masterdominus" means Master Master.

What's "baiter" in Latin?

[GoktimusPrime]

What's "baiter" in Latin?

Maybe "INESCATOR."

[GoktimusPrime]

I was told by someone who was told by a Hasbro insider that Hasbro was initially reluctant to allow Lego to make the Optimus Prime set due to Lego being their competitor. I guess this is why Hasbro made attempts at competing with Lego (Mega Bloks, Construct-Bots, Kre-O etc.), but ultimately just could never match Lego's success. I suppose they've come to a point of, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." I don't actually know how well Mega Bloks, Construct-Bots or Kre-O sold, but seeing as neither line exist anymore while Lego does, I'm gonna guess that they did not fare as well.

[KELPIE]

I was told by someone who was told by a Hasbro insider that Hasbro was initially reluctant to allow Lego to make the Optimus Prime set due to Lego being their competitor. I guess this is why Hasbro made attempts at competing with Lego (Mega Bloks, Construct-Bots, Kre-O etc.), but ultimately just could never match Lego's success. I suppose they've come to a point of, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." I don't actually know how well Mega Bloks, Construct-Bots or Kre-O sold, but seeing as neither line exist anymore while Lego does, I'm gonna guess that they did not fare as well.

Does Mega Bloks not exist anymore? I still see them on Shelves...

Mega Construx seems to be doing pretty well for Mattel. However they leverage the "Minifig" aspect of it very well and that's where Hasbro potentially dropped the ball?

[Handsprime]

Does Mega Bloks not exist anymore? I still see them on Shelves...

I think Gok means the Built to Rule toys, since Mega Bloks does still exist, even if they are called Mega Construx nowadays. It seems nowadays they mostly do licensed toys (whether it be Mattel brands like Hot Wheels and Barbie, or licenses that aren't owned by Lego like Halo, Pokemon, Call of Duty, etc.)

Should be noted that what is called Mega Bloks now are building blocks designed for pre-schoolers.

[GoktimusPrime]

I think Gok means the Built to Rule toys, since Mega Bloks does still exist, even if they are called Mega Construx nowadays.

I stand corrected, sir.

[griffin]

I was just watching some mini-clips from TakaraTomy for a cross-promotional thing in Japan, and I think that I have been pronouncing "Takara" wrong all this time.

All this time, I have pronounced it (and heard it from others) as Tar-car-ah (as if you had the word "car" in the middle)... but these three mini-clips from TakaraTomy had at the very beginning, the name pronounced like Macca (Macdonalds), with the "M" replaced with a "T", and "ra" at the end.
So if you say - "Macca-ra" a few times and then change it to "Tacca-ra", that was how they were pronouncing it in the mini-clips.
A small change, but it now sounds significantly different in my head.

Even though I know the various sounds of Japanese characters, I've never heard anyone pronounce "Takara" in this way before.
(unless the Japanese person on these mini-clips is pronouncing it wrong?)

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

I was just watching some mini-clips from TakaraTomy for a cross-promotional thing in Japan, and I think that I have been pronouncing "Takara" wrong all this time.

All this time, I have pronounced it (and heard it from others) as Tar-car-ah (as if you had the word "car" in the middle)... but these three mini-clips from TakaraTomy had at the very beginning, the name pronounced like Macca (Macdonalds), with the "M" replaced with a "T", and "ra" at the end.
So if you say - "Macca-ra" a few times and then change it to "Tacca-ra", that was how they were pronouncing it in the mini-clips.
A small change, but it now sounds significantly different in my head.

Even though I know the various sounds of Japanese characters, I've never heard anyone pronounce "Takara" in this way before.
(unless the Japanese person on these mini-clips is pronouncing it wrong?)

That's a linguistic transference thing, applying English word-stress patterns to foreign words. If it was pronounced the long-middle sound English way it'd be タカーラ ta-kaa-ra as opposed to タカラ ta-ka-ra. The closest way to the Japanese-style pronunciation would probably be the first syllable sound of 'cutter' repeated for all three 'a' syllables. Goki can probably explain it better than I can.
Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it too much, but yeah, the ad had it right. Takara means 'treasure' in Japanese btw, though I'm not sure if they chose the name based on that (again, Goki would probably know) - it's written in katakana (usually used for foreign/loan-words or for emphasis) which is reasonably common for company names.

[GoktimusPrime]

The difficulty here is that Japanese is not a stress-accented language like English, but rather a pitch-accented language; and as Odie pointed out, Anglophones have a habit of transferring stress onto Japanese words (and phonemic transference is a main source of foreign accents).
There are four main pitch accents in standard Japanese, which this video explains quite well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6AoilGEers

The pitch accent that applies in the standard pronunciation of "Takara" is the Odaka (low-high-low) pitch:
ta KA ra
low high low

The other thing that Anglophones tend to do is muck up vowel lengths. In the word "Takara," every "a" is a short /a/ sound; as Odie said, like the "ah" sound in "cutter" (or "up"). I think Anglophones are okay with the short "a' sound when it's in the first syllable of a word, like WAgyu or WAsabi etc., but then they tend to lengthen the vowel in the second syllable, so "wasabi" becomes "waSAAbi." Note that saying wagyu as waGYUU is actually correct (it is supposed to be a long "u" sound). So sometimes it's right, sometimes it's not; it's easier to see when you read it in Hiragana text or more transliteral forms of Romanisation (e.g. "wagyuu").

So every syllable in "Takara" is a short vowel. Ta. Ka. Ra. Not "taKAAra." Think of it as the "ka" as in "KArate", even Anglocised it's kaRAAte, not KAArate.

Takara means 'treasure' in Japanese btw, though I'm not sure if they chose the name based on that (again, Goki would probably know) - it's written in katakana (usually used for foreign/loan-words or for emphasis) which is reasonably common for company names.

Yes, "Takara" does mean "treasure" in Japanese. As you have correctly stated, Japanese names/words are often written in Katakana for em-far-sis.

TL;DR: Go to Google Translate, set it to translate from English to Japanese. In the English panel, type "Takara" in English. You will see the Japanese text appear on the other side. Under the Japanese text is a speaker icon. Click on it to hear a recording of a native Japanese speaker saying the word. You can also type in "Takara Tomy" and click on the icon to hear it being said.