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Bandai

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This article is about the Japanese toy manufacturer. For the town in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, see Bandai, Fukushima.
Bandai Co., Ltd. is a Japanese toy making company. It is the world's third largest producer of toys.

After the merger with video game developer and producer Namco, Bandai Co., Ltd. is now under the management of Namco Bandai Holdings Inc.

Contents

History

Bandai was founded in 1950. Some of the early tin plate toys are highly collectible; the pictured model will sell for around US$150.

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, Mazinger, Kamen Rider, the Super Sentai Series (which they took part in creating), Gundam and many others.

Saab 96 tin plate toy car by Bandai
Enlarge
Saab 96 tin plate toy car by Bandai

Subsidiaries

Bandai has many subsidiaries. Further detail:

Bandai Visual (Emotion)

Bandai Visual (Emotion), produces and distributes many popular anime and tokusatsu titles. These titles include Cowboy Bebop, Big O, Outlaw Star, Please Teacher!, Escaflowne, the Mobile Suit Gundam, Pilot Candidate franchise and Witch Hunter Robin. The company logo is the Moai, a statue found on Easter Island.

Bandai America

Bandai America is the American distribution arm of Bandai that makes toy products for the U.S. market, distributes Bandai games, and distributes many of Bandai Visual's anime titles (in addition to animes licensed from other animation studios, such as .hack//SIGN) in the United States through its Bandai Entertainment arm headquartered in Cypress, California and in Canada through Bandai Entertainment Canada, which is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario.

At times fans of the Super Sentai and Power Rangers series complain about Bandai America's some-what inferior versions of Japanese Super Sentai toys when brought to the Power Rangers line. Several complaints raised by fans revolve around the Sentai "Henshin Devices" and the fact that they've either: been scaled down, stripped of many of their original electronic features, have certain parts removed or replaced and that the toys lack the paint detail of the original toys.

Other complaints revolve around the Sentai "Mecha"/Power Rangers "Zords". These complaints include the replacing of die-cast metal parts with plastic, weapons being rounded rather than sharpened at the ends of the blades, large "Power Rangers" stickers being placed on the toys, less paint being used that the original toys and many "chromed" parts being coloured much duller than their original colours.

Other complaints stem from the sometimes sexist handling of the Power Rangers toyline. In nearly every season, Bandai makes "souped-up" versions of the male characters, and not for the females. Most female villians and mentors get skipped over altogether.

Bandai Visual USA

Bandai Visual USA was established in 2005 as a wholly owned subsidiary of BANDAI VISUAL CO., LTD. with a mission to facilitate stronger, more active involvement in positioning, marketing and distribution of BANDAI VISUAL programs in North America. From its base in Torrance, California, BANDAI VISUAL USA seeks to form new alliances and reinforce existing ties in an effort to strengthen BANDAI VISUAL’s international presence as a producer and content provider in the ever expanding and diversified specialty programs market.

Bandai Visual USA has established the Honneamise logo, the name is a reference to the imaginary kingdom in the movie . The HONNEAMISE logo is represented by the three primary colors in a mitsudomoe, reminiscent of an old Japanese mon heraldic symbol. Blue and yellow signify the EMOTION label that was started in 1983 with the company’s establishment and nurtured into the current success in the Japanese market. BANDAI VISUAL is represented in the HONNEAMISE logo with red. With this logo, we are determined to integrate the new and the old, Japan and other countries, creators and users, so as to generate new, deeper entertainment.

The flagship properties for this new company will be the re-release of Patlabor movies 1 and 2 in both a standard and limited edition. These releases will feature the remastered, anamorphic video and the newly recorded 5.1 Japanese mix from the Japanese DVD release. There will also be a newly recorded English dub and English subtitles on these discs as well. The limited edition release of Movie 1 will also feature a 300 page translated storyboard book by Mamoru Oshii and a 184 page archives book. It was announced at the 2006 Anime Expo that Bandai Visual would be releasing GAINAX' Gunbuster, Toppu wo Nerae! in the near future.

Bandai Games

Bandai Games produces and distributes video games based on Bandai properties including Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front, , and Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo. Bandai Games most recently opened a United States office.

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, and their newest TCG, Rangers Strike (Sentai).

Sunrise

See Sunrise (company)

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.

Anime produced by Bandai Visual (selection)

Games Produced by Bandai (NAMCO BANDAI)

Manga produced by Bandai Entertainment

Tokusatsu movies produced by Bandai

See also

External links

 

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