Unfortunately the answer is, depends on the figure. They should all have the Takara copyright on them, but I know a few don't have the hasbro one, normally if they are the Pre-rubsign versions.
Juts got a G1 Seaspray and it says Takara, but wondering it this was released here or in Japan. Is there a way to tell?
For some of these, it is not possible to really know without knowing the history of that exact toy. The reason for this is because some G1 toys had the same stampings in both countries. For a Seaspray example, the Takara stamp was used in US and Japan: FredsWorkshop.com But the Hasbro stamp was used in the US and (probably not) Japan, however the overstock theory may change that. FredsWorkshop.com So for issues like this, I consider there to be 2 different G1 Seaspray sold in the US. I could consider a Takara stamped version to be a fill-in for the one in the Japanese line, only to be later replaced by a boxed version. And even so, unless the item is sealed, there is no garauntee that the toy inside is the correct one. I had the same issue when I couldn't prove one way or another if my Canadian Astrotrain and Blitzwing boxed toys had their original Canadian or US toys inside, since they are not sealed.
thanks for the info guys. I just don't collect any of the Takara stuff and try to stick to Hasbro Transformers only. Didn't know how to classify or identify the G1 Hasbros from Takaras.
If anything, it's the North American stuff that will have Takara-only stampings as opposed to the Japanese G1 Transformers. This is because in 1984 the Hasbro copyrights had not yet made it onto the Transformers series 1 and select series 2 moulds. Factories were producing Transformers for North American markets using moulds only slightly altered from Diaclone / Micro Change Series. The Transformers only came out in Japan in 1985, and by that point nearly all the original moulds had been updated to include Hasbro's name on the copyrights. There are exceptions, but that's a general rule of thumb to be guided by. All the best Maz
