Transformers is unique in that it is a jointly-operated property between both Hasbro AND Takara...a partnership that began in the 80's. I'm not clear on who really owns the property but I do know it was Hasbro who purchased Takara's DIACLONE line (the predecessor to TFs) and rebranded it as TRANSFORMERS, creating the original G1 mythology, characters, etc. Obviously Takara operates Transformers in the Asian markets while Hasbro operates Transformers in the Western markets.
Anything that either company makes regarding the TF figures I believe is instantly open to the other to release in their respected market...pending whatever policies or whatever they have.
I am surprised and dumb-founded by how little people know about Takara. There was one board member, name with held to protect the innocent, who asked if Takara was a part of Hot Toys!
Here is a brief history of Takara's impact on American action figures. The success of G.I.Joe in the 60's caused Hasbro to try and branch out to other countries by licensing the figures to toy companies, Takara being the one in Japan.
They made military based figures but decided to transition the military line into a more sci-fi property so in the late 60's/early 70's Takara came out with Henshin Cyborg, clear plastic figures that had interchangeable body parts and had more futuristic clothing sets.
The line had initial success but ultimately it was decided to scrap the 1/6 scale and move to 3 3/4 inch figures they called Microman, or Micronauts in America. This was the first toy line of the 3 3/4 scale to be successful. The success of the 3 3/4 scale Micronauts is one of the reasons Kenner decided to make their Star Wars figures this size. The other obvious reason that worked for Microman and Star Wars was that with the smaller scale the figures could have vehicles.
The story of Microman was that they were aliens from another planet waging war on earth, kind of like Autobots vs Decepticons, or Cybertron vs Destron. The only difference was that the Micromen were only 3 3/4 inches tall, so they could hide during the day and wage war at night. The scale proved so popular that Hasbro adopted it for their re-launch of G.I.Joe in 1982.
By 1982 Takara had gone a different direction with Microman. They decided to scale down the figures and have them ride in a child's toy, namely cars and jets. The vehicles had seets that the small drivers could ride in, and when they went to fight the vehicles could transform into robots with the Micromen at the helm. They called this new series Diaclone.
By 1982-83 Hasbro still had the line of communication open with their Japanese cousin Takara and decided to bring them to America. Hasbro also had ties with Marvel Comics so they had them right up an amazing back story were aliens from another planet wage war against each other secretly. But instead of being small cyborg men who fought in secret, they became giant robots in disguise who continued their civil war on Earth. Diaclone became Transformers. Transformers was so popular here that they tried the same Diaclone line again as Transformers in Japan and it was a hit in Japan. All of the Transformers figures in Asia are made in the same factory, just put in different boxes and shipped accordingly. I think they do the same thing for the American market.
I hope this helps to inform the masses of the identity and importance of this Japanese company called Takara.