4 ms·

Bandai: A Japanese toymaker’s role in the history of board games (2017)

81 points by benbreen 8y ago

amyjess 8y ago
This is very interesting. I'm familiar with Bandai's toys, having been a tokusatsu fan since I was a kid [0], but I knew nothing about their board games. [0] And seeing Gorenger mentioned in an article posted on HN put a smile on my face. In the west, toku tends to not get mentioned much outside of toku circles.
hkmurakami 8y ago
Iirc they purchased Namco and are have been Bandai Namco for many years. Also a powerhouse in IP licensed video games iirc, esp licensing Sunrise anime.
- amyjess 8y ago
  > Also a powerhouse in IP licensed video games iirc, esp licensing Sunrise anime. FYI, Bandai has actually owned Sunrise since 1993. Gundam had become so integral to Bandai's business that they bought the studio that made it (over the objections of Gundam's creator, though). Their video games are first-party, not licensed. Interestingly, Bandai was a significant distributor of anime in the US for a long time, so that meant US releases of Sunrise anime were some of the only anime that was sold in the US first-party and not under license. A few years ago though, they shut down US operations and Sunrise anime is now distributed in the US under license by Nozomi Entertainment.
  - lostconfused 8y ago
    Im sorry, I’m not very knowledgeable about the plastic model industry, so I can’t answer that question. Unfortunately, I can’t really make a statement on the plastic scale modeling kits, probably because I’d be eradicated from the industry if I made his true feelings known. - Yoshiyuki Tomino https://www.toonzone.net/nyaf2009-yoshiyuki-tomino-q-ampa-panel-report/ https://www.toonzone.net/nyaf2009-yoshiyuki-tomino-q-ampa-pa...
coziestSoup 8y ago
For those who found this interesting, Netflix has a really good show on the history of popular toys called the Toys That Made Us. It's well made and taught me a lot of things about the toys I grew up with.
ekphrasis 8y ago
Nathan Altice makes great presentation slides. Here on board wargames history: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uQJ5rI8fWEzAV1orIznpVDkL9o6cgdL3/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uQJ5rI8fWEzAV1orIznpVDkL9o6... I can also recommend his game studies book on the NES, I am Error.
zealsham 8y ago
I remember watching the anime "naruto" and seeing bandai as one of the companies involved in it .
- gh02t 8y ago
  They own Sunrise, which has produced a ton of the most famous anime series (they own the license to Gundam, for instance). Bandai USA was responsible for a ton of the shows I grew up watching on TV, from Power Rangers to Dragon Ball.
- amyjess 8y ago
  Bandai has their hands in pretty much every merchandise-driven kids' show in Japan.
Pxtl 8y ago
He's dead, Jim.
- threeio 8y ago
  http://archive.is/tnR2i http://archive.is/tnR2i

81 points by benbreen 8y ago

This is very interesting. I'm familiar with Bandai's toys, having been a tokusatsu fan since I was a kid [0], but I knew nothing about their board games. [0] And seeing Gorenger mentioned in an article posted on HN put a smile on my face. In the west, toku tends to not get mentioned much outside of toku circles.

hkmurakami 8y ago

Iirc they purchased Namco and are have been Bandai Namco for many years. Also a powerhouse in IP licensed video games iirc, esp licensing Sunrise anime.

amyjess 8y ago
> Also a powerhouse in IP licensed video games iirc, esp licensing Sunrise anime. FYI, Bandai has actually owned Sunrise since 1993. Gundam had become so integral to Bandai's business that they bought the studio that made it (over the objections of Gundam's creator, though). Their video games are first-party, not licensed. Interestingly, Bandai was a significant distributor of anime in the US for a long time, so that meant US releases of Sunrise anime were some of the only anime that was sold in the US first-party and not under license. A few years ago though, they shut down US operations and Sunrise anime is now distributed in the US under license by Nozomi Entertainment.
- lostconfused 8y ago
  Im sorry, I’m not very knowledgeable about the plastic model industry, so I can’t answer that question. Unfortunately, I can’t really make a statement on the plastic scale modeling kits, probably because I’d be eradicated from the industry if I made his true feelings known. - Yoshiyuki Tomino https://www.toonzone.net/nyaf2009-yoshiyuki-tomino-q-ampa-panel-report/ https://www.toonzone.net/nyaf2009-yoshiyuki-tomino-q-ampa-pa...

coziestSoup 8y ago

For those who found this interesting, Netflix has a really good show on the history of popular toys called the Toys That Made Us. It's well made and taught me a lot of things about the toys I grew up with.

ekphrasis 8y ago

Nathan Altice makes great presentation slides. Here on board wargames history: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uQJ5rI8fWEzAV1orIznpVDkL9o6cgdL3/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uQJ5rI8fWEzAV1orIznpVDkL9o6... I can also recommend his game studies book on the NES, I am Error.

zealsham 8y ago

I remember watching the anime "naruto" and seeing bandai as one of the companies involved in it .

gh02t 8y ago
They own Sunrise, which has produced a ton of the most famous anime series (they own the license to Gundam, for instance). Bandai USA was responsible for a ton of the shows I grew up watching on TV, from Power Rangers to Dragon Ball.
amyjess 8y ago
Bandai has their hands in pretty much every merchandise-driven kids' show in Japan.

Pxtl 8y ago

He's dead, Jim.

threeio 8y ago
http://archive.is/tnR2i http://archive.is/tnR2i