Transformers toys now being made in Vietnam?

[griffin]

According to the production stamp on the new Leader sized Starscream, it is being manufactured in Vietnam.

http://www.seibertron.com/transforme...immicks/18197/

Wonder if this will just be a one-off or occasional thing, or has Hasbro found cheaper labour in Asia for all its future TFs toys?

[liegeprime]

wow, guess they have to source out a lot of cheaper labor, and with China also it seems KOs did start to proliferate massively and flourish so I guess they dont want to put all their eggs in one basket to protect their intellectual property.

[5FDP]

This was reported late last year on TFW -

Takara Tomy relocating manufacturing lines to Vietnam

The Nikkei Net News is reporting that Takara Tomy, who also handles manufacturing for Hasbro on the Transformers line, are relocating their manufacturing lines to Vietnam from China. The reasons given are that Takara Tomy seeks to cut costs, due to the rising costs of labor expenses in China and the CNY exchange rate. It is envisioned that 100% of their production lines will have moved by the end of next year.

[MV75]

So how is the quality? Probably better.

So vietnam is the next china.

[Vector Prime]

It was only a matter of time before they switched to production in Vietnam... labor is very cheap over there.

[kup]

Hopefully this will mean an improvement of Hasbro's product quality and improved QC for Takara-Tomy.

[SilverDragon]

I'm curious about whether this will affect the rate of 'preview' toy images (i.e. ones which got stolen from the factory). Of course we got our pictures of this Starscream, but will it change in future?

[GoktimusPrime]

Just off the top of my head I can recall copyright stamps on my Transformers indicating that Transformers were manufactured in the following regions:
+ Japan (e.g. early G1)
+ Macau (e.g. G1 Afterburner)
+ Taiwan (e.g. G1 Sureshot)
+ Indonesia (e.g.: G2 1993 Megatron)
+ China (e.g.: everything from recent years)

Have I missed any? If not, then it means that Vietnam will become the 6th region for Transformers manufacturing.

[griffin]

It could mean less KOs, or more, depending on what the new factories and workers are like. Same with the quantity of 'stolen', pre-production figures.
If the labour is cheaper, the workers may be more likely to sneak out toys (if they have ebay access like the chinese workers did).
There might be a bit of a blackout for a while, during the transition.

[kup]

Just off the top of my head I can recall copyright stamps on my Transformers indicating that Transformers were manufactured in the following regions:
+ Japan (e.g. early G1)
+ Macau (e.g. G1 Afterburner)
+ Taiwan (e.g. G1 Sureshot)
+ Indonesia (e.g.: G2 1993 Megatron)
+ China (e.g.: everything from recent years)

Have I missed any? If not, then it means that Vietnam will become the 6th region for Transformers manufacturing.

G1's manufacturing was much wider than that. Due to protectionist laws that existed in several countries during the early to mid 80s, Hasbro had to license manufacturing to local factories in order to sell in those regions. As a result G1 was manufactured in several countries and why there are Brazilian, Peruvian, Mexican, Italian and others.

However the ones you listed are indeed the main most common ones.