What is considered the vintage period for Japanese toys?

Bullmark went out of business in 1977 so would one say late seventies and earlier is considered vintage?
And then 80s and 90s modern with anything after 2000 considered contemporary?

Not trying to over analyze or what not.
Just bored and kicking around the definitions on another board so I was curious what people thought over here...

I think anything that has the bandai kid logo or earlier usually falls into the "vintage" category.

I consider "vintage" to be pre-mid-80's, but then again, that has a lot to do with what I like... ; )

Is the period just a number of years old, so every year more are included or is more of fashion in which toys were made. Some bandai godzilla toys are over 25 years old now. I always think of vintage as more of a style. Something about the way marusan/bullmarks were made compared to more modern approaches.

>pre-mid-80's

so are we saying anything made on or prior to 1983 is now vintage?

>bandai kid logo

wasn't this logo gone by 1980 (maybe even sooner)?

I agree with Mike: I don't like to use a flat number of years to define "vintage" rigidly. It's more of a style thing in my mind. And there definitely were some vinyl sculpts in the early 80's that were done in the chunky, charming old-timey way.

long time ago i came up with 1983 as an answer for the same question. funny thing is. erik over at toybox dx, came up with the same year, but for different reasons.

wondering for a while ...since when are vintage toys being collected in japan???
...todays going prices being paid???

I like this interpretation. We've kicked this around on Toybox for a while but you could look at it this way:

1966 to 1983 - Vintage period of Japanese character toys. The monster boom is started by Marusan (continued by Bullmark) and robots are introduced by Popy.

1983 to 1993 - Modern period. Bandai starts making "realistic" kaiju toys and the mecha era of robot anime begins. The death of Hirohito (end of the Showa era) and the bubble burst changes Japan and things start to shift.

1993 to present - Contemporary era. Toys for children are rarely made in Japan, but companies like M1GO and Marmit get the old Japanese vinyl factories fired up again. Bandai's "Soul of Chogokin" debuts and reissues abound. Adults open their wallets accordingly.