Bandai America
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| Subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings | |
| Industry | Toy Maker, software & programming, film production, anime & tokusatsu |
| Founded | July 5, 1950 |
| Headquarters | Taitō, Tokyo, Japan |
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Key people
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Kazunori Ueno, President & CEO Mitsuaki Taguchi, COO |
| Products | Gundam models, Godzilla, Super Sentai models, Naruto Gachapon and Figurines, Tamagotchi, Digimon, plastic model kits, among others |
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Number of employees
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1229 (as of April, 2017) |
| Parent | Bandai Namco Holdings |
| Website | |
Bandai Co., Ltd. (株式会社バンダイ 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 Taitō, Tokyo.
Bandai was founded in 1950. In the 1960s Bandai expanded to include export sales. 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.
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 of Bandai Namco Holdings and a member of Bandai Namco Group. Following a group reorganisation in 2006, Bandai heads the group's Toys and Hobby Strategic Business Unit (SBU).
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Wikipedia