Tonka (toy manufacturer)
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| founding | September 19, 1946 |
| Seat | Mound , United States |
| Branch | Toy maker |
| Website | www.funrise.com |
Tonka is an American manufacturer of trucks and construction machinery as toys made of sheet metal.
The company founded on September 19, 1946 in Mound , Minnesota, USA by the three entrepreneurs Lynn Everett Baker (1898–1964), Avery F. Crounse and Alvin F. Tesch was initially called Mound Metalcraft and produced tie racks made of metal. Originally they wanted to make garden tools.
Since business was bad and a lot of raw materials (sheet metal) remained in stock, the three founders decided to use the available material to produce toys made of sheet metal. Essentially, trucks and construction machinery were manufactured that were up to 50 cm long. With these dimensions, toys were placed on the market that had never been seen before in this size. Also unique at the time was the enormous stability, as hardly any other materials were used besides strong sheet metal. The specialty of the Tonka constructions was that no screws or rivets were used to connect the individual sheet metal parts, but rather large sheet metal parts were bent and plugged into one another with tabs. This resulted in very stable, closed housings. The use of unusually thick sheets for toys, strong axles and only a few plastic add-on parts made the toys extraordinarily resilient and durable devices.
In the first year of production of the toys, over 37,000 units were produced. On November 23, 1955, the company name was changed to Tonka and from then on only toy vehicles were manufactured.
In 1987 Tonka took over Kenner Parker Toys Inc with the Kenner and Parker Brothers brands from General Mills .
In 1991 the Tonka brand was sold to Hasbro , which now sells plastic toys under the Tonka brand name, ruining the toy’s reputation for being indestructible. Only the old tin tonkas are very popular with collectors, especially in the USA.
