Bandai
is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo, including many international branches around the world. Since 2005, Bandai is the toy production division of Bandai Namco Holdings, which, in 2017, was the world's second largest toy company measured by total revenue. Between 1981 and 2001, Bandai was a manufacturer of video game consoles.
Bandai was founded by World War II veteran Naoharu Yamashina as Bandai-Ya on July 5, 1950, as the corporate spin-off of a textile wholesaler. The company began as a distributor of metallic toys and rubber swimming rings, before moving to metal cars and aircraft models. It was renamed Bandai Co., Ltd. in 1961 and achieved considerable success with its action figures based on the anime Astro Boy.
History
Origins and success with toys (1947–1968)
In 1947, Naoharu Yamashina began working for a Kanazawa-based textile wholesaler. The eldest son to a rice retailer, Yamashina had studied business in high school and was enlisted in World War II, where an impact from a grenade shrapnel blinded him in his right eye. The textile business, ran by his wife's brother, was struggling financially as a result of Japan's post-war economy. He made little money working, and as he was having a difficult time finding ways to allow the business to pick up, a neighbor told him about the potential of the toy industry and the financial success that could be generated from it. Intrigued, Yamashina convinced his wife to travel to Tokyo with him to begin studying the potentially lucrative market for toys. With little money or exposure in the field, the two worked long hours to establish a small toy distribution division within the textile business.Yamashina assumed full control of the toy division on July 5, 1950, when it was spun-off as a separate company named in Taitō, Tokyo. The name was derived from Japanese reading of Chinese phrase "bandai fueki", meaning "eternally unchanging" or "things that are eternal" which originated from the Chinese military text Six Secret Teachings in one of the seven military texts of the Seven Military Classics. Being assisted by Atsuko Tatsumi, publisher of the Weekly Toy News in Tokyo, Bandai-ya distributed and imported celluloid dolls, metallic toys, and rubber swimming rings. The company released its first original product the same year, the Rhythm Ball, a beach ball with a bell inside that suffered from numerous quality defects. Bandai-ya improved the quality of its products as it continued designing new kinds of toys, such as inexpensive metal cars and aircraft models. Several of these were exported to the United States and elsewhere as a result of their popularity, being among the earliest "Made In Japan" products exported outside the country.
As its revenue increased, Bandai-ya began expanding its operations. A new shipping and warehouse facility was constructed in spring 1953, followed by research and development and product inspection departments later that year. A manufacturing facility, Waraku Works, was opened in early 1955 to increase the production of toys. In the same year, it implemented the toy industry's first quality assurance system; the first toy approved by this was the 1956 Toyopet Crown model car, which was also Bandai-ya's first product with a guarantee. The growing company worked on creating a friendly corporate image for itself, introducing a new logo, slogan, and television commercials that emphasized its quality products. Bandai-ya was renamed Bandai in July 1961, the same time it started spreading its operations overseas, beginning with the establishment of Bandai Overseas Supply in New York City.
While its toys often sold well in Japan, Bandai didn't achieve considerable success until 1963, when it began producing action figures based on the anime Astro Boy. The toy line's success prompted Bandai to reorganize and rethink its business strategies, as the company transitioned from working on original products to funding the creation of new television series and acting as a sponsor during their run, with advertisements that showed off Bandai's tie-in action figures and costumes. A similar blockbuster hit was found with action figures in the likenesses of Ultraman characters, largely due to the popularity of the television series at the time; the figures were later released in North America to little fanfare. In July 1966, it released Crazy Foam, a line of bubble blowing canisters that sold 2.4 million units in three months, thanks to the backing of an extensive marketing campaign. Bandai's other products included the Thunderbird electrical vehicles, the Water Motor bath toys, and the Naughty Flipper, the last of which received a gold medal at the 1968 New York International Innovative productions Exhibition. An additional manufacturing plant was acquired in late 1969 to further increase the production of toys.
Continuing expansion and Mobile Suit Gundam (1971–1983)
Bandai continued its expansion throughout the 1970s. The company established a joint venture with model car manufacturer Tonka in 1970 and established Tonka Japan K.K., as part of Bandai's continuing mission in establishing ties with foreign companies. A subsidiary named Popy was formed a year later that specialized in the manufacturing of toys based on popular children's characters, the subsidiary was originally intended for candy shops and other retail outlets outside of the usual toy stores. Though Bandai became a major player in the Japanese toy industry, competing with companies such as Takara and Epoch, executives believed the company needed to further spread out into international territories to help increase worldwide brand awareness.Bandai Models was later established in 1971, who specialized in the manufacturing of toy characters. 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 May 1980, Makoto Yamashina, son of the founder, became president of Bandai. Naoharu Yamashina became chairman of the board. Upon his arrival, Makoto Yamashina completely changed the ageing staff of Bandai and replaced them with younger employees with the intent of not only bringing new ideas, but also revisiting the strategy of the group. The new president took a different commercial approach by selling directly to retailers rather than going through intermediates.
In July 1980, Bandai launched the 'Gundam Plastic Model' based on the animated series Mobile Suit Gundam which gave birth to the Gunpla range of scale model kits. In November, the subsidiary Celent was created.
Entry into the video game market (1983–1989)
Bandai became one of the first third-party developers for the Nintendo Family Computer in 1985. Among its first titles was Tag Team Match: MUSCLE, a video game adaptation of the Kinnikuman manga, which sold over one million copies. Bandai also produced the Family Trainer Pad, released outside Japan as the Power Pad, which also performed well commercially. 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 shrink-wrapped 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.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, Gundam, and many others. In February 1989, it acquired arcade game developer Coreland and reorganized it into Banpresto, which became Bandai's coin-operated entertainment division. In the early 1990s, Bandai published games for Nintendo in the United Kingdom, including Street Fighter II on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Mainstream success and expansion (1989–1995)
By 1989, Bandai celebrated its 39th anniversary as Makoto Yamashina spoke of the name "Bandai Land" as a vision for a leisure facility modeled after Disney's theme parks when Bandai decided to shift its focus from being a toy company to an entertainment company like the above as the name "Japan's Disney". In that same year when Bandai suffered numeruous financial troubles, they established a partnership with video game publisher & developer Corland in order for Bandai to expand into the coin-op industry as the former would allow themselves to launch a stronghold into the above genre. Later in that same year when Conland suffered similar financial constraints as they were having accumulated more than ¥1.5 billion in debt due to poor sales, Bandai rather than dropping out of the struggling Conland deal, they decided to majority-acquire the company in February 1989 and had it reorganised as their own video game publishing & development division Banpresto; the name came from a portmanteau of "Bandai" and "presto", a word used to describe magic, with Yukumasa Sugiara a member of Bandai's board of directors became president of the rebranded division.In February 1994, Bandai entered the film & television animation production business by acquiring famous anime studio Sunrise, the acquisition of Sunrise had gave Bandai their own official in-house anime production studio as Bandai's management including Satoru Matsumoto joining the acquired studio.