Well this is what I remember, two brothers from canada visited Japan, of course the brothers worked for Spinmaster, and they had this big meeting with japanese toy creators. After all the talk, the brothers came back to Canada and starting processing ideas, and they had finally created bakugan. Bakugan means like bursting marble or something in japanese, anyways, they were created and were first available in Japan, and later moved into Canada. By the time it reached U.S., it was about 2007-2008ish, and bakugan was born. For a while they were hard to get at first because after they were released, spinmaster had to recall one of their other products, aqua doodle, which carried lead. About half a year later they got back into their flow, and ever snce its been a hit.I remember this from searching the spinmaster website, anyways, I could be wrong, but enjoy.