Kuwahara was not really well known until after the release of Steven Speilberg's classic movie E.T. in 1982. BMX was all the rage back in those days and Steven Spielberg had noticed lots of kids riding BMX bikes all over the place. This is when Mr. Spielberg decided to have some action scenes involving BMX bikes. Kuwahara Bikes in Osaka, Japan was contacted by one of Mr. Spielbergs staff and they tried to place an order for 40 bikes. At first the person who took the call at Kuwahara thought this was a prank phone call and hung up. The next day Spielbergs staff called again to confirm the order and Kuwahara though slightly embarrassed had them get in touch with Howie Cohen of Everything Bicycles who was the main distributor for the US market. Howie Cohen sat down with the movie studio staff at Universal and went through several designs until they came up with the classic Red/White ET colors that were also approved my director Steven Spielberg as well. Universal Studios entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Kuwahara and Everything Bicycles for the E.T. bike. After the release of the movie, Kuwahara started mass producing these E.T. colored bikes. There were three types of them made. Two of them were the loop tail type frame with KZ type double gussets. The loop tail E.T. bikes were split up into two grades. One was a "High-end" type with Japanese made components and a higher price and were almost only sold in serious bike shops. The lower price loop tail E.T. model featured less exotic parts to help keep the cost down. Pictures of the two types of loop tail E.T. bikes can be found below. The third E.T. model was the cheap Apollo frame model with it's single front gusset and three holes pressed into it, non-loop tail rear, and full high tinsel steel frame. The Apollo Kuwahara E.T. bikes were about half the price of the loop tail bikes and featured mostly Taiwan made parts, however the frame was made in Japan. The Apollo E.T. or the cheaper version were sold in toy and department stores and are sometimes known as the Toy store E.T. model **(Be careful not to mistake a toy store model or Apollo E.T. Bike for a real E.T bike with the loop tail)**

Kuwahara E.T. models look very similar to the earlier KZ models with the double gusset but have totally different drop outs. The E.T. model has only one hole and is a looptail style (Similiar to the NOVA) while the KZ models have three holes punched into the rear drop outs and are Non-Loop tail style. Have a look at the pictures below