Quoting current company President Eiji Kaminaga, who kindly supplied us with this never-published information:

“Marusan was the first Japanese company to produce plastic model assembly kits in Japan even though they were copies of Revell products. Minoru Ishida went on a business trip to the United States in the mid-1950s, to sell tin toys to Eldon. Then he saw some Revell model kits and took those to Japan. In 1958, he began make copies of the Revell kits. It was a steep learning curve because not only Marusan but also the entire Japanese toy industry did not know about plastic injection molding technology, having only dealt with wood then pressed tin. After Marusan began selling plastic model kits, the company made an exchange agreement with Revell.
“Soon after, other Japanese toy makers dropped their wooden model kits and converted their manufacturing to plastic injection molding. In the early 1960s there was a kind of plastic model-kits craze in Japan that sprouted from military models, aircraft and ships, and evolved to character models. Marusan made their first plastic model kits of Godzilla in 1964.
“Around 1963, the plastic kit industry production and fierce competition between brands was already exceeding demand, and the companies began looking for something new. Since 1960 the import laws had been loosened, therefore many foreign toys were imported, including American and British slot cars. As they became popular in Japan, many makers started to produce kits and parts.
“In 1964, a big commercial slot car raceway was opened in Tokyo and was a success. After this, many raceways were opened all over Japan.
“In 1965, Japan Model Car Racing Association was established, that consisted of toy makers, importers, wholesalers that included Mabuchi, Asahi (ATC), Gunze-Sangyo, Nichimo, Imai, Tamiya, Marusan, etc.
But soon the slot car boom was over. Because it had been so popular with children and as they had spent too much time and money with slot car racing, many elementary schools prohibited students go to the raceways.
“Marusan had heavily invested in tooling for slot car models and were heavily indebted. This was the main reason of the bankruptcy in 1968.”

“This eventually led to the establishment of two companies: In 1969 Minoru Ishida rebuilt the company as Marusan Co., Ltd. At the same time, Koutaro Ishida, who was a Marusan board of directors’ member and a nephew of Minoru Ishida, created a new company named Bullmark, along with two other former employees of Marusan, Saburo Ishizuki and Yutaka Shibata. Bullmark became a major producer of plastic kits and vinyl monster character toys until 1977, when it closed its doors. Meanwhile Marusan was also very active in vinyl toys and created their own original monster series in 1970 and the “Ultraman Ace” series of mini-toys in 1972. During the 1970s, Marusan eventually moved primarily into the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) business of producing toys and parts for others, as opposed to producing original brand toys. In support of this strategy, they developed elaborate small stamped-steel and brass gearboxes, which were used in many companies’ products. Minoru Ishida died in 1987 at the age of 72 and Aiko Ishida was appointed president. The following year, actual manufacturing began in China. By 1997 and capitalizing on the nostalgia craze, Marusan returned to their roots with reproductions of their original monster series.”