Takara imports to Australia

[Bladestorm]

This is what I've been saying on all the news postings - Japanese Transformers get released by Hasbro HK for the Asian market, and as such would have Hasbro master cartons... and it is their stock that we are getting, NOT Japan's stock.

It is understandably confusing for people though, as they see Japanese toy and assume that it is sold by TakaraTomy.

This is interesting... Tak Tomy stuff released in HK by Hasbro HK comes in Tak Tomy Boxes... I watched a pallet of MP-10's and MP-23's get delivered to a store 2 weeks ago and the boxes were definitely Tak Tomy - not a sign of a Hasbro logo on them...

Surely they don't waste time un-boxing and re-boxing into Hasbro boxes for Oz? Do they???

[DELTAprime]

Gok translates the Japanese into English for Hasbro so the TRU packaging actually is different than Takara Tomy's. Everywhere else in the world that gets Takara Tomy product just has the Japanese packaging, but sometimes they slap a sticker over some of the Japanese text, I've gotten United figures from China and much of the back of the card is covered by a sticker that presumably translates the Japanese into Mandrin.

[GoktimusPrime]

I only translate the instruction booklets, which also include character bios and little text blurbs etc., but I don't handle anything outside of the booklets. The packaging that Hasbro AU gets is identical to TakaraTOMY's, only that they have English language stickers stuck on the outside for legal purposes (i.e. age limit and legal blurb).

For example, here's a comparison between Hasbro AP's MP Bumblebee that was released at TRU here (left) and TakaraTOMY's MP Bumble (right).

Hasbro have stuck an "Ages 15+" sticker on the front of the box. They may also stick a legal fine print blurb on the bottom of the box, covering TakaraTOMY's legal fine print. That's it. Other than that, the boxes are identical.

[DELTAprime]

Really? I remember you showing off box art with translated text.

[GoktimusPrime]

That was probably the front cover for the booklet.

[drifand]

That was probably the front cover for the booklet.

That will be correct.
I was actually hoping someone to answer why hasbro asia priced their products so much higher when the factory is near to them. And I am speaking in terms of Hong Kong especially.

The current price of what tru offers actually helped to sold my mp-10 off.

Even at 20 percent off is still expensive.