BANDAI was founded in 1950, when Naoharu Yamashina took over a former textile wholesales company, that he himself had restructured into distributing toys. He renamed it BANDAI, which was derived from the Chinese phrase for "things that are eternal." At this time the firm was mainly selling celluloid and metallic toys, along with rubber swimming rings. In March 1951, BANDAI, Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan, began to export inexpensive toys like metal cars and planes to the United States and other foreign markets. In early 1955, BANDAI established a manufacturing facility, the Waraku Works and started making toys themselves too. In the early 1960s, BANDAI began to establish direct overseas sales and opened an office in New York. Nowadays BANDAI is the world's third-largest producer of toys.
Very elegant Japanese Volkswagen Bus tin toy. This multi-sectioned tin VW Bus has cut out windows, eight roof windows with a colored plastic insert, a closed sun roof stamping and an opening rear door. There is a colored plastic insert for the windshield. A very nice tin plate lithographed interior with three bench seats, a red/black plaid design and a plastic driver with steering wheel adds to the details. Metal headlights, front “W” emblem, door seams, engine vent louvers are used on the body detailing. The lower body section also forms the chassis. This VW Bus has a two “D” cell battery compartment with locking door. The batteries operate an electric motor with a mechanism/fifth wheel to drive the Bus in a figure 8 pattern. The front turn signals and rear taillights also light up when the Bus is in motion. Rubber wheels, metal hub caps with a “W” and shiny tin bumpers finish off the details. White painted tin license plate number 4016. Chassis stamped VOLKSWAGEN, BANDAI insignia and SIGN OF QUALITY – MADE IN JAPAN.
The white ambulance version does not have the eight roof windows. A red plastic light mounts of the front roof section and there is a round tin sign with a red cross “+” symbol on the sides of the VW Bus.
