Bandai (バンダイ)

Bandai was born in 1950 in a Japan where toys were a luxury, and built its model on one insight: do not invent the characters, buy the rights to the ones children already watch on television. Ultraman, Kamen Rider and then Gundam gave it three inexhaustible seams.

The firm invented or popularised several formats in their own right: Gunpla, the glue-free model kit that turned assembly into an adult hobby; gachapon, the capsule dispenser that sells chance as much as the object; and the Tamagotchi, which launched the digital pet in 1996. Merged with Namco in 2005, it also publishes video games.