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 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.
The BANDAI “European Cars Set” comes with two cars. A Porsche 911 Sedan in cream white and a Volkswagen Beetle Convertible in metallic red or cream white. Tin side moldings, front hood strips, taillights, front & rear bumpers. A very colorful tin lithograph interior with an ivory colored plastic steering wheel adds to the overall details. This top down model has a celluloid windshield with a tin frame attached to the body. Tin chassis with bumpers and a hand held, battery operated (2-Cells), wired remote control with forward & reverse drive with steering action. The set has one remote control and drive mechanism that can be removed and interchanged between the two cars. The VW Convertible has been noted with either a 1966 or 1967 white rear license plate and the chassis is stamped VOLKSWAGAN - MADE IN JAPAN. Also different shades of the metallic red paint have been noticed.
