Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Gundam franchise began on the 7th of April 1979 with the premiere of Mobile Suit Gundam, an anime series created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and produced by Sunrise. The show launched the Universal Century timeline, which remains the largest continuity in the franchise.
Gundam was created by animator Yoshiyuki Tomino alongside rotating members of Sunrise, who worked under the collective pseudonym Hajime Yatate. The name combines the words "gun" and "dam" to evoke a powerful weapon that holds back enemies like a dam.
In the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, covering April through June 2025, the Gundam franchise generated approximately 65.4 billion yen, or about 443 million US dollars, in IP-related revenue, making it Bandai Namco's highest-earning intellectual property during that period. Annual revenue for the franchise had already reached 54.5 billion yen by 2006.
Gunpla are Gundam-branded plastic scale model kits, released since the early 1980s in scales such as 1:60, 1:100, and 1:144. Gunpla accounts for 90 percent of the Japanese character plastic model market. The product line spans Entry Grade kits for children through Master Grade and Perfect Grade models for serious hobbyists.
The Universal Century is the largest timeline in the Gundam franchise, beginning with the original 1979 series and continuing across dozens of TV series, films, and OVAs. It depicts wars between an Earth-based government and space colonies, with the first series set in Universal Century year 0079.
Gundam reached mainstream North American audiences in 2000 when Mobile Suit Gundam Wing premiered on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block, with trade coverage identifying it as a key driver of the block's ratings growth. A 2014 distribution agreement between Sunrise and Right Stuf/Nozomi later brought legacy Gundam titles to North American home video.