Saab 96 tin plate toy car by Bandai
Subsidiaries
Bandai has many subsidiaries. Further detail:
Bandai Visual
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Bandai Visual, Co. Ltd, produces and distributes many popular anime and tokusatsu titles. These titles include Cowboy Bebop, Big O, Outlaw Star, Please Teacher!, Escaflowne, the Mobile Suit Gundam, Pilot Candidate franchise and Witch Hunter Robin. The company logo is the Moai, a statue found on Easter Island.
Bandai America
Bandai America is the American distribution arm of Bandai that makes toy products for the U.S. market, distributes Bandai games, and distributes many of Bandai Visual's anime titles (in addition to animes licensed from other animation studios, such as .hack//SIGN) in the United States through its Bandai Entertainment arm headquartered in Cypress, California and in Canada through Bandai Entertainment Canada, which is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario.
At times fans of the Super Sentai and Power Rangers series complain about Bandai America's some-what inferior versions of Japanese Super Sentai toys when brought to the Power Rangers line. Several complaints raised by fans revolve around the Sentai "Henshin Devices" and the fact that they've either: been scaled down, stripped of many of their original electronic features, have certain parts removed or replaced and that the toys lack the paint detail of the original toys.
Other complaints revolve around the Sentai "Mecha"/Power Rangers "Zords". These complaints include the replacing of die-cast metal parts with plastic, weapons being rounded rather than sharpened at the ends of the blades, large "Power Rangers" stickers being placed on the toys, less paint being used that the original toys and many "chromed" parts being coloured much duller than their original colours.
Other complaints stem from the sometimes sexist handling of the Power Rangers toyline. In nearly every season, Bandai makes "souped-up" versions of the male characters, and not for the females. Most female villians and mentors get skipped over altogether.
Bandai Games
Bandai Games produces and distributes video games based on Bandai properties including Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front, Gundam Wing: Endless Duel, and Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo. Bandai Games most recently opened a United States office.
Carddass
Carddass is the Bandai subsidiary responsible for releasing trading card games based on popular Bandai franchises. This includes games such as the Gundam War Collectible Card Game based on the Gundam metaseries, as well as a Gash Bell (Zatch Bell!) TCG, and their newest TCG, Rangers Strike (Sentai).
Sunrise
See Sunrise (company)
Handheld systems
Bandai has also released a series of handheld game consoles including the WonderSwan, WonderSwan Color, and Swan Crystal. The systems were only released in Japan.
Games Produced by Bandai
Manga produced by Bandai Entertainment
See also
External links