Bandai America history

In March 1951, Bandai began to export inexpensive toys like metal cars and planes to the United States and other foreign markets.

Bandai highlighted this in television commercials that began airing in 1958, which used the phrase, "The Red Box means a BC-guaranteed toy." The following year a Cars of the World model line was launched, and the company's logo was redesigned to stress its emphasis on quality.

Character-Based Toys Debut in 1963

In the fall of 1969, Bandai formed a Travel Services unit and acquired an additional factory in Shimizu City, where it would manufacture plastic model toys such as the World Car, Thunderbird 2, and Beetle series.

The firm established Tonka Japan in 1970 in a marketing tie-up with that company, and a year later it added a Models unit and created Popy as a manufacturer of character toys.

1971: The Popy character toy unit is formed.

1980: Yamashina's son Makoto is named president of the firm.

The year 1982 also saw Bandai form a department to develop and create original animation and film projects, and a new subsidiary, Emotion, which began to open video shops in Japan.

1984: Changeable Gobots toys are launched in United States but are outsold by Transformers.

Bandai was experiencing a sharp decline in sales at this time, with 1985 revenues of 70.7 billion yen ($495 million) down significantly from the previous year's figure of 84.5 billion yen.

In 1989, the company moved into a new headquarters building in Tokyo, and entered the music business by forming the Emotion label and establishing a relationship with the firm Apollon Music Industry.

Working to take advantage of this success, in March 1994 Bandai announced it would build factories in Vietnam and Mexico to increase output as well as to lower costs.

In March 1996, the Pippin Atmark, as it was now called, was introduced in Japan.

On a sad note, in October 1997 Bandai founder Naoharu Yamashina passed away at the age of 79.

In the spring of 1999, the company also changed its top leadership, with Takeo Takaso becoming president and Yukimasa Sugiura CEO and chairman.

In the spring of 2000, Bandai announced it would pay a bonus of ¥1 million for each baby an employee had after their second child.

Bandai's financial picture continued to improve in 2001, with numbers released in the spring for the preceding fiscal year showing profits jumping to ¥12.9 billion on sales of ¥217 billion.

In January 2003, the recently-purchased Tsukuda Original was sold to Wakui Corporation.

The 15-story facility was expected to open in April 2005.