Banpresto

The Company Banpresto is a company that was founded on April 30, 1977 and was shut down in 2008. This company made games of series like Sailor Moon, Super Robot Wars and others and they also made plush toys. This company was eventually absorbed into Bandai Co., and their toy division was spun off and was continued by an unrelated company with the same name. Before the toy division was spun off, they made plushies of different series, but importantly for us, they made plush of the Super Mario series from 1991 to 2007. Sadly, the new division of Banpresto no longer makes Mario toys.

## Plush sets

From 1991 to 2007, Bannpresto made 12 sets of Super Mario series plush. Here they are, listed in order of year.

**1991 & 1992: The first set**

In 1991 and 1992, Banpresto made the Super Mario World Set. This set contains 2 waves of plushies. The first wave contains plushies of Mario, Yoshi, Galoomba, Banzai Bill and Rip Van Fish. The second wave contains plushies of Cape Mario, Luigi, Koopa Troopa, Monty Mole and Bowser.

**1993: Triple sets**

In 1993, Banpresto made 3 sets. The first one being the Super Mario Kart Set. This set only contains 3 plush: Mario in a kart, Yoshi in a kart and Peach in a kart. Oddly, all 3 of them are holding a checkered flag.

The second set in 1993 was the Super Mario World Christmas Set. This set has plush all revolving around the theme of Christmas. This set contains 4 plush, Santa Mario, Reindeer Luigi, Angel Peach and Stocking Yoshi.

Finally, the 3rd set Banpresto released in 1993 was the Super Mario All Stars Set . This set contained 8 plush: Toad, The Yoshi King, Hammer Mario, Pidget, Frog Mario, Racoon Mario, Tanooki Mario and Birdo.

**1994 and 1996: The Taffeta Era**

In 1994 and 1996, a lot of Banpresto's Plush were made out of Nylon Taffeta material, and this was not limited to just Mario. In that era, they made 2 sets of plush.

The First of the sets was the Banpresto Taffeta Super Mario World set. This set had 5 plush: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Rip Van Fish and Magikoopa. This plush is notable for making the plush similar to a "Chibi" art style.

The second of the sets was the Banpresto Squeaky Hammer set. This set had 5 plush: Mario, Luigi with Mallet, Donkey Kong with banana, Diddy Kong with barrel and Yoshi with Baby Mario. This set is the only Squeaky Hammer line of Mario plush, and probably the last one.

**Late 1996: The 3D Revolution**

In November of 1996, Banpresto decided to make a set based off of Super Mario 64. This set contains 6 plush: Wing Mario, Metal Mario, Goomba, Koopa Troopa, King Bob-omb and Bowser.

**1999: Party Time**

In 1999, Mario Party released and Banpresto wanted to make a set about it. This set is now called the Mario Party Set. This set has 4 plush: Mario with a star, Yoshi with a coin, Wario with a coin bag and Bowser with the flag.

**2006: The Remakes**

In 2006, Banpresto made 3 sets of plush. The first one is the New Super Mario Bros. set. This set has 45 plush in 11 waves. Wave 1 of the small plush has Jumping Mario, Goomba, 1-UP Mushroom and Bullet Bill. The second wave has Running Mario, Goomba, Petey Piranha, Mega Mushroom and Balloon Boo. Wave 3 has Mario(Blue shell power up), Casino Toad, Casino Luigi, Mega Mushroom 2 and Boo. The DX Set wave 1 has Mario and a Mushroom and wave 2 has a mega mushroom. The Sound series wave 1 has the 8 bit Question Block, and Goomba, Wave 2 has a Question Bock and a Koopa Shell and wave 3 has the Star, Goomba and the classic Question Block. The Pillow Plush set wave has a Mushroom, a Star Coin and a Goomba. The Bead Keychain set wave 1 has Mario, Star, Fire Flower, Mushroom, Goomba and Blooper. Wave 2 has Fire Mario, 1-Up Mushroom, Toad, Koopa Troopa, Buzzy Beetle and Cheep Cheep. Wave 3 has Koopa Paratroopa, Red Koopa Paratroopa, Spike Top, Boo, Goomba(Screaming), Mushroom and Star and finally, wave 4 has Mushroom, 1-Up mushroom, Mega Mushroom and Mini Mushroom.

The 2nd set is the Super Mario 64 DS set has the Super Mushroom, 1-Up Mushroom, Goomba With Mario Hat, Goomba with Luigi Hat and Goomab with Wario Hat.

The 3rd and final set for 2006 was the Yoshi's Island DS Set, which had a Green, Yellow, Red and Blue Yoshi plush.

**2007: Exploring the Cosmos**

In 2007, Banpresto would make their last Super Mario plush set for a while. This set was the Super Mario Galaxy set. This set contains 6 plush: Flying Mario, Life up Mushroom, Boo Mario, Boo Mushroom, Bee Mario and Bee Mushroom.

**2015: 30th Anniversary**

In 2015, Banpresto returned to the Mario plush business and made some 30th Anniversary plushies of a coin block, a brick block and a super mushroom

**2017: Odyssey**

In 2017, Banpresto released a plush of captured Goomba.