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.
A five section tin VW Bus with cut out windows. The roof is pressed with eight small windows and a sunroof. Tin trim pieces include the VW front emblem, headlights and front and rear bumpers. There are seam line of the doors, raised door handles, side air louvers and taillights. A very colorful tin lithograph interior insert with dashboard, metal steering wheel and three tin seats. The tin chassis has a friction motor with rubber tires and raised VW hubcaps. The lithograph design on the chassis looks like a big front mounted V8 engine, drive shaft and rear end. These BANDAI VW Busses were produced with various lithograph designs such as the John´s Dairy, Parkway Distributors and a variation with stripes.
