Takara Playing is Culture 1955 Pin

Takara (タカラ) was founded by Yasuta Satō in 1955 as Sato Vinyl with the motto "playing is culture," and one of his first successes was securing the license to produce a line of popular American dolls for the Japanese market. In 1960, they changed their name to Takara Vinyl, though this new name would be shortened to simply Takara in 1966. In the '70s, Takara exploded with new products, ranging from actions figures to transforming robots. Over the following decades, Takara would continue to grow and thrive through an increasingly convoluted chain of licensing, evolving, and re-licensing of toy franchises, some of which remain near impossible to unravel even today.