Bandai
is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and Richmond, London. Bandai is a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings and is the parent company's core toy production division. From 1981 until 2001, Bandai produced 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, Ya ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bandai Namco Holdings
also known as the Bandai Namco Group and generally Bandai Namco, is a Japanese multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, formed from the merger of Bandai and Namco on September 29, 2005. The company specializes in toys, video games, arcades, anime, and amusement parks. The company's headquarters are in Minato, Tokyo. Their US branch, Bandai Namco Holdings USA, was officially formed on January 6, 2008, and handles the US operations of the company from their headquarters in Irvine, California. As of 2017, Bandai Namco is the world's largest toy company, earning in annual revenue. History Namco Bandai Holdings was created in 2005, when toy maker Bandai and video game developer Namco performed a management integration. Officially, Namco was purchased by Bandai for $1.7 billion. 57% of the company's holding went to Bandai while 43% went to Namco. Furthermore, Bandai swapped one of its shares for 1.5 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bandai (1950s) Logo
is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and Richmond, London. Bandai is a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings and is the parent company's core toy production division. From 1981 until 2001, Bandai produced 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, Ya ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gundam Model
Gundam models, or , are model kits depicting the vehicles and characters of the fictional ''Gundam'' multiverse by Bandai. These kits became popular among mecha anime fans and model enthusiasts in Japan and nearby Asian countries beginning in the 1980s. Gundam modeling spread in the 1990s with North America and Europe being exposed to ''Gundam'' through television, video and manga. The name ''Gunpla'' derives from the phrase "''Gun''dam ''pla''stic model," most kits being made of plastic. Bandai sold over Gundam plastic model units between 1980 and 1984, and over units by May 1999. By 2015, Bandai had sold an estimated 450million units worldwide across nearly 2,000 different Gundam models. , Bandai Namco has sold Gundam plastic model units, including standard Gundam units (since 1980) and SD Gundam units (since 1987). History ;Late 1970s–1980s Gundam models are based on the ''Mobile Suit Gundam'' franchise, which debuted in 1979 as a television show. The show was not hi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ultraman
''Ultraman'', also known as the , is the collective name for all media produced by Tsuburaya Productions featuring Ultraman, his many brethren, and the myriad monsters. Debuting with ''Ultra Q'' and then ''Ultraman'' in 1966, the series is one of the most prominent ''tokusatsu'' superhero genre productions from Japan, along with the Toei-produced series '' Kamen Rider'', ''Super Sentai'' and the ''Metal Heroes''. The series is also one of the most well-known examples of the '' kaiju'' genre, along with Toho's ''Godzilla'' series and Daiei Film's ''Gamera'' series. However, the series also falls into the ''Kyodai'' Hero subgenre of ''tokusatsu'', a subgenre it also helped popularise. In Japan, the Ultraman brand generated in merchandising revenue from 1966 to 1987, equivalent to more than adjusted for inflation. Ultraman was the world's third top-selling licensed character in the 1980s, largely due to his popularity in Asia. References to Ultraman are abundant in Japanese po ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Popy
Popy (ポピー) was a Japanese toy manufacturer of the 1970s and early 1980s. The company was owned by Bandai. It was founded in 1971 and merged back into the parent company in 1983. The company is best known for its groundbreaking Chogokin robot figures. History Popy was formed by Bandai in July 1971 to distribute products intended for candy shops and other retail outlets outside of the usual toy stores. Before long, the company began to license characters and vehicles from popular live-action (Tokusatsu), Anime and Manga series. Its first major success in this vein was a child-sized version of the "Henshin Belt" worn by the hero of the ''Kamen Rider'' television series. Although other companies selling similar products, only Popy's incorporated a light-up mechanism, making it a smashing success despite its then-high retail price of 1500 yen. (It would eventually go on to sell some 3.8 million units.) In the wake of the success of the "Henshin Belt," Popy introduced a palm-sized, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spacewarp (toy)
Spacewarp is a line of build-it-yourself, marble-run toy "roller coasters" first made in the 1980s by Bandai.Spacewarp Toys Users cut lengths of track to the correct size from a single roll of thick plastic tubing, forming curves and loops held in place by plastic track rail holders which attach to metal rods held vertical in a black plastic base. s roll around the track and on to a battery-powered that takes them to the top to start ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kinnikuman
is a Japanese manga series created by the duo Yoshinori Nakai and Takashi Shimada, known as Yudetamago. It follows Suguru Kinniku, a superhero who must win a wrestling tournament to retain the title of prince of Planet Kinniku. Nakai and Takashi planned the series when they were attending high school originally as a parody to ''Ultraman''. The manga was originally published in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1979 to 1987, and was first adapted by Toei Animation into a 137-episode anime series broadcast on Nippon Television from 1983 to 1986. It restarted publication in 2011 in Shueisha's web magazine ''Shū Play News'', and has spawned spin-off manga and anime series, video games, anime films, and several ''Kinnikuman''-related merchandise. There is also a sequel, the manga that was serialized in ''Weekly Playboy'' between 1998 and 2004. It was published in North America by Viz Media under the title of ''Ultimate Muscle''. It ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Irvine, California
Irvine () is a Planned community, master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on December 28, 1971. The city had a population of 307,670 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. A number of corporations, particularly in the technology and semiconductor sectors, have their national or international headquarters in Irvine. Irvine is also home to several higher education institutions including the University of California, Irvine (UCI), Concordia University Irvine, Concordia University, Irvine Valley College, the Orange County Center of the University of Southern California (USC), and campuses of California State University Fullerton (CSUF), University of La Verne, and Pepperdine University. History The Gabrieleño indigenous group inhabited Irvine about 2,000 years ago. Gaspar de Portolà, a Spanish explorer, cam ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Family Computer
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American test markets on October 18, 1985, before becoming widely available in North America and other countries. After developing a series of successful arcade games in the early 1980s, Nintendo planned to create a home video game console. Rejecting more complex proposals, the Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi called for a simple, cheap console that ran games stored on Game cartridges, cartridges. The Game controller, controller design was reused from Nintendo's portable Game & Watch games. Nintendo released several add-ons, such as a light gun for shooting games. The NES was one of the List of million-selling game consoles, best-selling consoles of its time and helped revitalize the US game industry foll ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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CRC Press
The CRC Press, LLC is an American publishing group that specializes in producing technical books. Many of their books relate to engineering, science and mathematics. Their scope also includes books on business, forensics and information technology. CRC Press is now a division of Taylor & Francis, itself a subsidiary of Informa. History The CRC Press was founded as the Chemical Rubber Company (CRC) in 1903 by brothers Arthur, Leo and Emanuel Friedman in Cleveland, Ohio, based on an earlier enterprise by Arthur, who had begun selling rubber laboratory aprons in 1900. The company gradually expanded to include sales of laboratory equipment to chemists. In 1913 the CRC offered a short (116-page) manual called the ''Rubber Handbook'' as an incentive for any purchase of a dozen aprons. Since then the ''Rubber Handbook'' has evolved into the CRC's flagship book, the '' CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics''. In 1964, Chemical Rubber decided to focus on its publishing ventures ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Epoch
In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by congruity, or by following conventions understood from the epoch in question. The epoch moment or date is usually defined from a specific, clear event of change, an ''epoch event''. In a more gradual change, a deciding moment is chosen when the ''epoch criterion'' was reached. Calendar eras Pre-modern eras * The Yoruba calendar (''Kọ́jọ́dá'') uses 8042 BC as the epoch, regarded as the year of the creation of Ile-Ife by the god Obatala, also regarded as the creation of the earth. * ''Anno Mundi'' (years since the creation of the world) is used in the Byzantine calendar (5509 BC). * ''Anno Mundi'' (years since the creation of the world) as used in the Hebrew calendar (3761 BC). * Olympiads, the ancient Greek era of four-ye ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kotaku
''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ''Kotaku'' was first launched in October 2004 with Matthew Gallant as its lead writer, with an intended target audience of young men. About a month later, Brian Crecente was brought in to try to save the failing site. Since then, the site has launched several country-specific sites for Australia, Japan, Brazil and the UK. Crecente was named one of the 20 most influential people in the video game industry over the past 20 years by GamePro in 2009 and one of gaming's Top 50 journalists by Edge in 2006. The site has made CNET's "Blog 100" list and was ranked 50th on ''PC Magazine''s "Top 100 Classic Web Sites" list. Its name comes from the Japanese ''otaku'' (obsessive fan) and the prefix "ko-" (small in size). Stephen Totilo replaced Brian ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |