so i'm pretty sure they are made in china and therefore are cheaper than JP vinyl but i'm curious to know peoples thoughts on this stuff. does anyone have any in their collections? why or why not? they make some cool looking stuff but i can't seem to force myself to buy anything even though it's pretty cheap...hmmmmm.

Pretty much the Mattel or Kenner of Japanese companies. Mass produced, fairly available from time to time and cheap due to the large quantites. I think every one on here that has any JP Vinyl has at least one Bandai piece on the their collection. It's where you start cause it's cheap - the heroin that gets you addicted to the expensive limited stuff!

I have an assload of bandai Godzillas-cool and lots of fun but lacking some of the finer paint the others have..

my bandai monsters used to sit on my top shelf, now theyve been replaced by vinyl crack, and sit in my flower box and guard my plants.

i sold all my bandais

well, the only bandais i have are those mins from the soul of bullmark series.

I am bidding on a bandai Woo on the bay, but its because I cannot find one anywhere else

I've got a few 1984 first release Bandai kaiju vinyls with attached hard tags for sale/trade if anybody is interested...

I love buying the bandai figs at shows for a couple bucks and sending them stateside to get my nephews hooked...(they're 4 & 2)

Yeah,Jocappy, I was the one bidding on that Woo before you, but its cool.Just check the list next time, it maybe something Im dying to get and we might start a bidding war.

I have a couple. when it comes to realism, I think they still take the cake. some of them are just awesome.

damn, Im sorry about that, I didnt even think at thetime of checking the list. Very sorry about that...... Joe

I disagree with a few of your statements here. You seem to be implying that because Bandai’s tend to be less costly than many other company’s products they are inferior. Does ‘expensive’ equal ‘better’? Just because an item is mass produced does that mean that it can’t have the aesthetic beauty of a toy tailor-made for the high-end adult collector market? Not trying to start any fights, but for me collecting isn’t limited by trendy aspects such as ‘price’ and ‘accessibility.’ Sorry to rant, it just cheeses me when someone starts on the 'playing with the big boys' speech.

hm. mine says "Made in Korea"

I remember getting these... I thought they were the shit at the time (I still think so!) Hm, I think my bro took off the tags sometime ago. As you can see they're stored in no man's land where some dusting needs to be done



are bandai figures usually cheaper? I think at the time they were rather pricey.

i think dr tonges didn't MEAN to say that bandai's toys are inferior coz the are cheap.

but the truth is, they are super cheap, mass produced. took me awhile to sell mine here on the boards... sold one so far and then the others sold as a lot on ebay.

personally, i'm not interested in the ultra kaijus series. the soul of bullmark are super cool. and cheap too and easy to get.

I think Bandai DX Godzilla is one of the coolest toys in my house, and a bargain at $70 or whatever it was. The stomping sound effects, the light up fins, the firey breath - and the cheap $9 Bandai ultra kaiju make the perfect enemies. Things can get rough when you're playing with a 12 and 8 year old and you don't want to worry about fancy paint jobs.

Also, Bandai is great source of Baltan. There are a bunch of different ones and they look great anywhere. Spice up that drab KAWS collection by dropping a waving Bandai Baltan in the middle!

Bandai originally put out hard vinyl figures in 1983.
The initial line of Ultra Kaiju and Godzilla toys were hard vinyl.
They werent the soft pvc vinyl they are now using.
Using soft pvc isn't necessarily an indication of "cheapness"
They are using PVC for two reasons.
PVC has superior molding qualities, which is why you are seeing new editions of
Ultra Kaiju that look "real" as opposed to the (now) retro looking '83 line.
Japan passed a child safety law due to children hurting themselves on the hard edges of hard vinyl toys.
(ironically, pvc (soaked in phthalates) has a much higher health hazard to children than hard vinyl)
The only thing cheap in all of this is the Chinese labor.
Original Bandais are not cheap (not now anyways) and were not made in China. The hard vinyls (pictured in Chad's post) are all stamped Japan on the foot and are commanding high prices now. The Namegon figure in particular is sought after due to its scarcity and it's TV origins.( the extremely cool Sci-Fi Fantasy series Ultra-Q )

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I remember when that law passed, I was a little bummed but the realism sure has changed for the better and thats kinda what the Bandai figures have been about. Over the years I have definitley seen the Bandai or no Bandai camps, alot of people I have met only collect the Bandai because they look real and always tell me the Bullmark stuff looks to corny. Oh well, to each his own, I just collect both!

Well thanks for reading into my words there Smapte! Didn't infer that at all. Bandai is a LARGE company - YES? DId I say they were bad quality - NO! I like the Bandai stuff and have had several of their pieces over the years. They are Mass produced BECAUSE Bandai is a Large company and can afford to do so - a lot of the "boutique" Kaiju and Neo Kaiju compnaies in Japan are run on shoe string budgets. Their product is available in limited quantities to a select market. Bandai vinyl is redily available worldwide and is cheap due to quantity. Were in my statements did I say it is cheap and not worth it? I was simply making the analogy that Bandai is large company like Hasbro - if you like Star Wars figures or Batman action figures, have been finding it hard to locate them? I think not. Learn it, know it, live it!!! Thanks for getting my back SUb. I have been gone for a few days!

Another thing to think about...
Bandai vinyls are inexpensive and are within the easy financial reach of many collectors who are just starting out and can't afford the higher priced vinyls from small companies who are literally cranking these in there one room studios in Japan. Think of the Bandai line as the "gateway toys".
There are plenty on this forum who are just now starting to clue in on what kind of vintage vinyl world is out there, but are shocked to find out what some of these vinyls command price wise.
You can thank Bandai for all the Urban vinyl that is sitting on your shelves.
They started it all.

My bad, I guess I was having a rotten day and I went on a rant. Time to adjust my Cymbalata levels, me thinks. No hard feelings, Dr. Tongue?

No hassle whatsoever!

Merely clearing the air so to speak.

(note to self: DO NOT piss off Dr T )

Just won this one...I have no idea about, other than I like it...

That's Hipporito Seijin

I'm a Takara man, at least for chogokin (diecast metal) type toys ("pre-Transformers" especially). Popy and Bandai put out a lot of copy cat pieces in the mid 80's, most of which are lame. Gobots anybody? blegh

Some Bandai Chogokin like the Mazinger figures are quite gorgeous, though - in a league of their own, really.

In terms of J Vinyl, that's another story.

By and large (soft vinyl excluded), Takara is king, even though they were recently another company's lunch.

Remind me to post my updated Diaclone and Microman collection pics sometime.