Bandai Co., Ltd. (????????, Kabushiki-gaisha Bandai) is a Japanese toy maker and a producer of a large number of plastic model kits as well as a former video game company. It was the world's third-largest producer of toys in 2008 after Mattel and Hasbro. Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs. Its headquarters is located in Tait?, Tokyo.
Video Bandai
History
In 1947, Naoharu Yamashina was working for the company of his brother-in-law, a textile wholesaler. As that segment of the market was going weak at the time, he realized about the potential of the toy industry. He successfully convinced his brother-in-law to dedicate a portion of the company's activities in that industry and to be in charge of it. Step by step, Yamashina developed a toy distribution empire within the company. On July 1950, Yamashina took full control of the toy distribution business, renamed it and founded the company Bandai-ya whose name was eventually shortened to Bandai in 1961.
In its first year, Bandai produced its first internal game, the Rhythm Ball, and its first metallic toy, a reproduction of the B-26. It also began the exportation of toys. As the company expanded, Bandai increased its exportations by building up in 1953 a new warehouse outside of Komagata. Several services were created within the company such as quality control, a R&D department and a transport division.
In early 1955, Bandai founded the subsidiary Waraku Works, a manufacturing facility. During the summer, Bandai moved to new headquarters in Taito-ku, not far from Komagata. The first company logo was created using the initials "BC" based on the first letters of Bandai Company. At the end of the year, Bandai launched its first product under guarantee, a mini replica of the Toyopet Crown car.
In 1958, Bandai introduced its first television commercial using the slogan « The Red Box means a BC-guaranteed toy ». In the middle of the following year, the company launched a lineup of mini toys representing car models from all over the world dubbed as "Cars of the World". The company logo was redesigned to emphasize on the quality of Bandai's products and was known as the "Banzai mark".
Bandai's racing car set, which first appeared in 1962, became a huge success. The 1970s continued to see Bandai expand, with Bandai Models being established in 1971. Although not their most profitable range, Bandai's 1/48 scale AFV models dominated that segment of the model kit market. Bandai America Inc. was established as local US sales/marketing operation in 1978. Spacewarp, a line of build-it-yourself toy rolling ball "roller coasters" was introduced by Bandai in the 1980s.
In November 1985, Bandai introduced the first video game based on the manga Kinnikuman: the NES title Tag Team Match: MUSCLE, which sold more than one million copies.
Since the 1980s, Bandai has become the leading toy company of Japan, and to this day, has the main toy licenses in Japan to popular properties including Daikaiju, Ultraman, Super Robot, Kamen Rider, the Super Sentai and Power Rangers series (which they took part in creating), Gundam and many others.
The management of Bandai and Sega discussed a merger in the late 1990s and voted to implement it, but the merger was later cancelled, citing "cultural differences", after a large scale protest by Bandai's middle management.
After its merger with game developer and amusement facility operator Namco in 2005, Bandai Company is now under the management and a member of Bandai Namco Holdings (Bandai Namco Group). Following a group reorganisation in 2006, Bandai heads the group's Toys and Hobby Strategic Business Unit (SBU).
Maps Bandai
Organization
Before the formation of Bandai Namco Holdings, Bandai had many subsidiaries. After group reorganization in 2006, they are managed under several strategic business units (SBUs) of the group. Further detail:
Toys and Hobby SBU
Popy
In 1971, Bandai founded its subsidiary company Popy which helped to launch toylines such as Chogokin and Machine Robo. It was merged into its parent company in 1983.
Bandai USA
Bandai USA (doing business as Bandai America Incorporated) is the American distribution arm of Bandai that makes toy products for the U.S. market and manufactures Power Rangers, Big Hero 6, Digimon, and Ben 10 toys. Other past products include
- Alienators: Evolution Continues
- Astro Boy
- Beetleborgs
- Ben 10
- Big Hero 6
- Cardcaptor Sakura
- Cyclonians
- Dick Tracy
- D.I.C.E.
- Dinozaurs
- Digimon
- Dragon Ball
- Dragon Ball Z
- Doraemon
- Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
- Finding Dory
- Godaikin
- Godzilla
- Gundam
- Kamen Rider
- Magical DoReMi
- Masked Rider
- Mega Man
- Metal Heroes
- Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir
- One Piece
- Power Rangers
- Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
- Pretty Cure
- Sailor Moon
- Saint Seiya - for American distribution, it was relabeled Knights of the Zodiac
- S.H. Figuarts
- Strawberry Shortcake
- Super Sentai
- Tamagotchi
- Teen Titans
- Thundercats
- Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends
- The Tick
- The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog
- Ultimate Muscle
- Ultraman
- Unazukin
- Wedding Peach
- Xyber 9: New Dawn
- Zatch Bell!
- Jelly Jamm
Visual and music contents SBU
Bandai Visual
Bandai Visual Co. Ltd., produces and distributes many popular anime and tokusatsu titles. These titles include Cowboy Bebop, Big O, Outlaw Star, Please Teacher!, Escaflowne, and the popular Gundam, Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and Super Sentai series. Their subsidiaries include the Emotion Music Company Limited, in which the logo is the Moai, a statue found on Easter Island. They now head the Visual and Music Contents SBU. Their North American division, Bandai Visual USA was absorbed into Bandai Entertainment (also a division of Bandai Visual) on July 1, 2008.
Bandai Entertainment
Bandai Entertainment was a subsidiary of Bandai Visual that was involved in the distribution of numerous anime in North America, as well as manga, American-made graphic novels and other merchandising ventures related to anime. Their headquarters in the United States were located in Cypress, California. They had a European subsidiary named Beez Entertainment (also a subsidiary of Bandai Visual) who handled European licensing & distribution rights to their library. The first part of Beez Entertainment's name stood for Bandai Entertainment European Zone, as Bandai Entertainment had operations in Europe. Beez Entertainment was based in France. Bandai Entertainment absorbed Bandai Visual's North American division, Bandai Visual USA, at the start of July 2008, and as a result, they were taken over by Bandai Visual, who then became their new parent company (though Bandai Entertainment continued to be part of Bandai). In addition, Bandai Visual also took over Beez Entertainment as their entry into the European market, and Beez Entertainment also continued to be part of Bandai as well.
However, Bandai Entertainment is no longer acquiring licenses to new anime, and as of March 1, 2013, they are no longer distributing and publishing home video in North America except for some. Also, Beez Entertainment is no longer releasing new anime in Europe.
Carddass
Carddass is the Bandai subsidiary responsible for releasing trading card games based on popular Bandai franchises. This includes games such as the Gundam War Collectible Card Game based on the Gundam metaseries, as well as a Gash Bell (Zatch Bell!) TCG, Naruto CCG, Rangers Strike (Super Sentai series, Kamen Rider series, Metal Hero series), Neon Genesis Evangelion Ultra Galaxy Daikaijyu Battle (Ultra series) and most recently their most successful to date, the Battle Spirits Trading Card Game.
Sunrise
Game contents SBU
Bandai Games (now Bandai Namco Entertainment as of 2015)
Bandai Games produced and distributed video games based on Bandai properties including Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front, Gundam Wing: Endless Duel and Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo.
In the early 1990s, Bandai published games for Nintendo in the United Kingdom, including Street Fighter II on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
In the beginning of 2005, Bandai Games opened a United States office as a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandai America which, prior to that, handled the publishing of video games in North America itself.
On March 31, 2006, it merged with Namco Ltd. which was renamed Bandai Namco Games Inc.
Motorsports
In 2006, Bandai entered Super GT with Lexus SC, and won 2006 Super GT Season GT500 Class Round 3 Overall Winner and ranked on fifth place in GT500 Class.
Consoles
During the late 1970s, Bandai sold the TV Jack console line: a series of pong based consoles. The last of the series was the Bandai Super Vision 8000 console released in 1979. It wasn't a simple pong based console system but a cartridge system with an 8-bit NEC D780C (Z80 clone) as CPU.
During the early 1980s, Bandai distributed a number of videogame machines. In 1982 the Bandai Arcadia, a variant of the Emerson Arcadia 2001, was released in Japan by Bandai. There were also four Japan-exclusive game releases which were the only known Arcadia titles written by other companies than UA Ltd. They also released local variants of the Intellivision and vectrex game consoles.
Bandai produced a running mat called the Family Fun Fitness System for the Nintendo Entertainment System starting in 1986. A series of games was released both in the US and in Japan, including Athletic World and Stadium Events for the NES. Shortly after its release, Nintendo purchased the rights to the FFF mat in North America, replacing it with their own redesign, the Power Pad. In order to maintain branding continuity, Stadium Events was pulled from shelves after a short period of availability at Woolworth's stores. Because the game was pulled from shelves and discontinued before many copies were sold, Bandai's Stadium Events is universally accepted as the rarest licensed NES game released in North America. A shrinkwrapped copy of the game sold for $41,270 on eBay in February 2010. The sister game to Stadium Events, called Athletic World was initially released with a label that indicated compatibility with the Family Fun Fitness mat, but was later re-released with an updated label that mentions the Power Pad instead. Stadium Events was not released by name again, but instead was slightly modified and relaunched as the Power Pad pack-in game, World Class Track Meet.
In the 1990s, Bandai teamed up with Apple to make the Pippin. They also made their own game console, the Playdia. Neither was a mass-market success. In 1999, Bandai created the WonderSwan portable game system. It, and its update, the WonderSwan Color, sold modestly well, but were unable to seriously challenge the dominant Game Boy Color and later, the Game Boy Advance. It was discontinued in 2003.
Handheld systems
Bandai has also released a series of handheld game consoles including the WonderSwan, WonderSwan Color and Swan Crystal. The systems were only released in Japan.
Bandai has also released a series of LCD games including Tuttuki Bako (released in Japan in 2008) and the LCD Solarpower series (released in the 1980s in both regions).
Games developed/published by Bandai
- Bandai Super Vision 8000
- Beam Galaxian
- Gun Professional
- Missile Vader
- Othello
- PacPacBird
- Space Fire
- Submarine
- LCD
- Patsy Duck
- Sailor Moon
- Sailor Moon Heart
- Anpanman
- Arcadia 2001
- Doraemon
- Dr. Slump
- Mobile Soldier Gundam
- Super Dimension Fortress Macross
- Bandai RX-78
- Gundam: Luna Tsu no Tatakai
- Mac OS
- The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime
- Playdia
- Bish?jo Senshi Sailor Moon S Quiz Taiketsu! Sailor Power Kesshuu
- Bish?jo Senshi Sailor Moon SuperS Sailor Moon to Hiragana Lesson!
- Bish?jo Senshi Sailormoon SS Sailor Moon to Hajimete no Eigo
- Bish?jo Senshi Sailormoon SS Youkoso! Sailor Youchien
- 3DO
- Bish?jo Senshi Sailor Moon S
- Sega Game Gear
- Bish?jo Senshi Sailor Moon S
- Game Boy
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
- SD Sengokuden 2: Tenka Touitsu Hen
- Welcome Nakayoshi Park
- Kaij?-? Godzilla
- NES
- Adventures of Gilligan's Island
- Akuma-kun: Makai no Wana
- Athletic World
- Bandai Golf: Challenge Pebble Beach
- Chubby Cherub
- Dick Tracy
- Dig Dug II (The NES version of Dig Dug was only released in Japan, until the Wii Virtual Console release in the US in June 2008.)
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- Dragon Power
- Dragon Spirit
- Dragon Spirit: The New Legend
- Dynowarz
- Frankenstein: The Monster Returns
- Galaga
- J. League Super Top Players
- Legends of the Diamond (Typo on the top label states Legends of the Daimond [sic])
- Monster Party
- M.U.S.C.L.E.
- Ninja Kid
- Shooting Range
- Stadium Events (Later pulled from shelves and retooled as World Class Track Meet)
- Street Cop
- Super Team Games
- The Rocketeer
- Toxic Crusaders
- Xevious
- Nintendo DS
- Power Rangers Samurai
- Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop
- Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop 2
- Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop 3
- Sega Genesis
- Dragon Ball Z: Sagas of Bravery
- SNES
- Bish?jo Senshi Sailor Moon S Kurukkurin
- Bish?jo Senshi Sailor Moon S Kondowa Puzzle de Oshioikiyo!
- Bish?jo Senshi Sailor Moon SuperS Fuwa Fuwa Panic
- Bish?jo Senshi Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Fuwa Fuwa Panic 2
- Captain Tsubasa J: The Way to World Youth
- Dragon Ball Z Super Butoden
- Dragon Ball Z Super Butoden 2
- Dragon Ball Z Super Butoden 3
- Gon
- Kamen Rider
- Mazinger Z
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
- Panic in Nakayoshi World
- Power Rangers Zeo: Battle Racers
- Ruin Arm
- Sh?nin yo Taishi wo Idake!!
- Ultraman: Towards the Future
- PlayStation
- Captain Tsubasa J: Get In The Tomorrow
- Digimon World
- Digimon World 2
- Digimon World 3
- Digimon Rumble Arena
- Dragon Ball:Final Bout
- From TV Animation - One Piece: Grand Battle! 2
- Kids Station: Bish?jo Senshi Sailor Moon World Chibiusa to tanoshii mainichi
- Samurai Deeper Kyo
- Scooby-Doo Arcade
- PlayStation 2
- .hack
- D.I.C.E.
- Digimon Rumble Arena 2
- Digimon World 4
- Eureka Seven vol.1: New Wave
- InuYasha: Feudal Combat
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo
- Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Never Ending Tomorrow
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam
- MS Saga: A New Dawn
- One Piece Grand Battle!
- Zatch Bell! Mamodo Battles
- Zatch Bell! Mamodo Fury
- Ultraman Nexus
- Sega Saturn
- Dragon Ball Z: Shin Butoden
- Nintendo GameCube
- Chibi-Robo! (in Japan)
- One Piece: Grand Adventure
- One Piece Grand Battle!
- Zatch Bell! Mamodo Battles
- Zatch Bell! Mamodo Fury
- Digimon Rumble Arena 2
- Virtual reality / Augmented reality
- Mugen Puchipuchi
- Tamagotchi Connection
- Tuttuki Bako
- Game Boy Advance
- Digimon Battle Spirit
- Digimon Battle Spirit 2
- Digimon Racing
- Zatch Bell! Electric Arena
See also
- Bandai Museum
- List of Bandai Namco video games
References
External links
- Bandai Co Ltd
- Bandai Europe
- Bandai France
- Bandai UK
- Bandai USA
- Bandai ASIA
- Bandai Korea
- Bandai Deutsch
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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