Tomy buys Thomas The Tank Engine

[bill937ca]

We missed this altogether.  Tomy purchased RC2 a NASDAQ traded company behind "Thomas The Tank Engine" on March 10th, the day before the earthquake.  Tomy, of course, is the corporate owner of Tomix and Tomytec. Tomy views itself as a toy company, not a model train company.

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tomy-buys-toy-train-line-2011-03-10

 

Still, I don't think we will ever see Tomix in North America.  The model train market is too conservative to accept anything other than transition era US prototypes.  

[keitaro]

doesn't mean they can't do a mix like kato do.

[David]

Thomas has been in the North American market for a while, just not in N. I believe Bachmann owns the US and British (maybe all of Europe) rights to making Thomas model trains. They are available in HO scale, and I one of the larger scales (O?). Tomy has the licence for Japan and maybe some of the other Asian territories. Based on the wider selection of Tomy Thomas stuff I assume Tomy's licence is for Thomas in general, and not just the rights to make scale model trains.

[bill937ca]

Looks like Tomy now owns the licenses too.

[westfalen]

I wonder what Reverend Awdry would have thought of the Japanese owning his creations and what this will mean for the TV series? Will Hiro make more appearances, will we see the construction of the Sodor Shinkansen? Still, they can't stuff up the good reverend's stories any worse than the previous owners managed to.

[Mudkip Orange]

AFAIK the rights to "Shining Time Station" and the newer television programs are held by Hit Entertainment, which was originally a holding company for the Jim Henson franchises (muppets, etc). I wonder if this buy just gets Tomy the toy licenses, or if there's more?

[keitaro]

good if they owned everything i would love to see a return to the layout video than the animation

[brill27mcb]

"Someday, Thomas, you could be a really useful engine..."

 

I never heard of RC2. Did they buy out Britt Allcroft, or grow of that owner of the rights?

 

Tomy has had U.S. sales offices off and on several times over the years. I used to meet Tomy USA reps at the annual New York Toy Fair, but their displays were mostly small children's toys, Takara-Tomy blue-tracked toy trains, and Tomy AFX HO slot cars. When you look at the enormous quantity of North American based train models Kato has produced, you can start to understand what a large commitment it is to get into the American model railroad market in a significant way.

 

Rich K.

[bikkuri bahn]

When you look at the enormous quantity of North American based train models Kato has produced, you can start to understand what a large commitment it is to get into the American model railroad market in a significant way.

 

Yes, and people have to remember Kato has long been involved in the U.S. model RR market, as they supplied Atlas with HO scale locomotives, which were among the first plastic types which had correct hood widths as well as better motors, thus starting the trend towards more prototypically faithful models, and breaking Athearns dominance. Tomix only started　their current HO scale line I believe in 1995, though they did market a few HO models further back, including some freight cars made in Hong Kong.

[cteno4]

hmm interesting. makes sense for tomy as a toy company and having tomytec lines to grab the licenses.

 

i do doubt it signals them entering the foreign model train markets though outside more thomas sales of their n scale stuff or new toy versions...

 

im guessing that tomy is pretty happy to stay out of the foreign markets as they have the lion's share in japan which is the biggest and most homogenous model train market in the world. plus they are a large toy company so they have great manufacturing muscle and resources to draw on, so can probably make a tidy profit. i could see them thinking trying to do overseas stuff would end up causing them to split their attention too much and require setting overseas distribution. they have probably watched what kato has had to spend/do to set up katousa nad hobbytrain deals and thought the return was just not there for them. risk taking and risk analysis is different in japanese business as well as home vs overseas business practices, sot its a complex mix...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[keitaro]

I would think the fact that they have this kind of power and backing from the japanese market that they would be able to make some foot print in the usa. probably not in australia though (could but would have to put alot of money in for little gain) having said that Nscale is growing more popular in australia.

 

A mate of mine who has been doing HO with his dad for 15 years plus have started an Nscale non japanese layout.

 

only a matter of time really as property sizes are shrinking in australia and this will eventually push modellers into a smaller scale.

 

still me running a japanese layout i would have no issues if kato or tomix decided to make a n XPT or tangara. Would most certainly acquire one.

[cteno4]

even though they may have the power from their japanese position, entering a new market like the us is something that is tricky and would take a lot to set up distribution. also tricky for them to sus out the american market and target it. there is a huge disparity in the variety of trains to produce between US and Japanese trains, so its a limited market in that respect as well as in the size of the US market. so they have to develop a brand new marketing in a foreign setting that is much more limited than what they have in Japan. also they would be competing with KatoUSA in this market and they have like 20 years head start of experience in that market so tomix would be at a bit of a disadvantage competing with their major japanese competitor. Diverting resources for a limited foreign market might also weaken them some in the Japanese market -- their prime market. sorry i just dont see the big benefits compared to the potential downsides as much as i would love to see tomix move more internationally.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[westfalen]

Why would you set up an overseas arm of your business to sell 5,000 SD40's when you can stay home and sell 50,000 DD51's? Maybe they are not the exact figures but I'm sure they'd be something along those lines. I think American modellers are lucky Kato got a leg up into the US market by making stuff for Con-Cor back in the 60's or they might be solely Japanese too. Not that it would bother us that much.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

"Someday, Thomas, you could be a really useful engine..."

 

I never heard of RC2. Did they buy out Britt Allcroft, or grow of that owner of the rights?

 

 

The rights were purchased by Hit Entertainment from Britt Allcroft. Allcroft really started to stretch the credibility of the stories; for examples travesties such as Thomas and the Magic Railroad...a classic case of milking something for as much as you can get (and often way beyond) without paying too much heed to the original spirit of the stories. Striking parallels here between Thomas and the schmultzy, sacarine rubbish that Disney churn out to get the maximum return from Winnie the Pooh.

 

There is nothing in the article to suggest these have transferred ownership. That said, I'm sure there will be very few people sorry to see the back of Hit's involvement, should that situation ever arise!

 

Thomas has been in the North American market for a while, just not in N. I believe Bachmann owns the US and British (maybe all of Europe) rights to making Thomas model trains. They are available in HO scale, and I one of the larger scales (O?).

 

Bachmann make the larger scale models...such as G gauge; however Hornby are very much the producers of the 00/H0 range.  Being one of their biggest sellers...both Thomas and the Harry Potter train effectively saved them from going bust a few years ago, I doubt they will be in much of a selling mood...