 | |
| Formerly |
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|---|---|
| Company type | Joint venture |
| Founded | June 22, 1946 in Mound, Minnesota |
| Founder |
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| Fate | Acquired by Hasbro in 1991 [1] |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Russell L. Wenkstern [2] |
| Products | Toys and games |
| Owner |
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| Subsidiaries |
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Tonka is an American brand and former manufacturer of toy trucks. [1] The company was founded in 1946 and operated as an independent manufacturer of popular steel toy construction type trucks and machinery, until its sale to Hasbro in 1991.
Tonka began as "Mound Metalcraft", a gardening tools company, in the fall of 1946 in Mound, Minnesota. [4] [5] Lynn Everett Baker (1898–1964), Avery F. Crounse, and Alvin F. Tesch created the company in an old schoolhouse. [4] Their building's former occupant, the Streater Company, had made and patented several toys, including toy trucks. [6] E. C. Streater was not interested in the toy business so they approached Mound Metalcraft. The three men at Mound Metalcraft thought they might make a good sideline to their other products. [7]
After some modifications to the design by Alvin Tesch and the addition of a new logo created by Erling Eklof, the company began selling metal toys, which soon became the primary business. The logo was based on a University of Minnesota drafting student's sketch by Donald B. Olson, who later became the company's Chief Industrial Engineer. The logo used the Dakota Sioux word tanka, which means "great" or "big". [8]
In November 1955, Mound Metalcraft changed its name to "Tonka Toys Incorporated". [9] From 1947 to 1957, their logo was an oval, showing the Tonka Toys name in red above blue ocean waves with seagulls overhead, honoring nearby Lake Minnetonka. [10] [6]
From 1958 to 1961, the logo no longer included seagulls and the colors were changed to white, grey, and red. [6] The colors changed to red and gold in 1963. In 1978, the oval was removed and the company began using only the name Tonka on their toys. [6]
In 1964, Tonka acquired the Mell Manufacturing Company in Chicago, Illinois, [11] allowing it to produce barbecue grills, eventually under the Tonka Firebowl label. [8] : 85–86
In 1968, Tonka moved company headquarters from Mound to Minneapolis. [11]
In 1987, Tonka purchased Kenner Parker, [12] including UK toy giant Palitoy, for $555 million, [13] borrowing extensively to fund the acquisition. However, the cost of servicing the debt meant Tonka itself had to find a buyer and it was eventually acquired by Hasbro in 1991, [13] its headquarters moved out of Minnesota, and relocated its manufacturing operations to Hasbro's facilities in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. [1] In 1998, Hasbro began a licensing deal with Funrise Toys to manufacture and distribute Tonka trucks. [14] The deal began with versions of the trucks fitted with electronics for lights and sounds, but grew to encompass the entire brand. [15] This agreement ended on July 4, 2019, with the license being transferred to Basic Fun!, [16] which produces other brands such as Care Bears, My Little Pony, and Lincoln Logs. [17] [18] Maisto International, which makes die-cast vehicles, acquired the rights to use the Tonka name in a line of 1:64 scale, featuring mostly trucks.[ citation needed ]
In 2024, Basic Fun filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. [19] The company will use bankruptcy proceedings to repay its creditors while remaining in operation. [20]
Tonka has produced a variety of toys, including dolls ( Star Fairies , Bathing Beauties, Maple Town , and Hollywoods). They have produced other toys, some aimed at girls (such as Keypers), [6] and others aimed at boys (such as Gobots , [6] Supernaturals, Rock Lords , Spiral Zone , Legions of Power and Steel Monsters ). It was the original manufacturer of the Pound Puppies [6] toy line, and in the late 1980s licensed products inspired by Maple Town .
Tonka produced video games as Tonka Video Games, including Tonka Raceway, and purchased the rights to distribute and market the Master System after Sega of America stopped competing against the Nintendo Entertainment System in the US. However, the Master System's market share declined, since Tonka did not have experience with video games or how to market them. Hasbro sold the digital gaming rights for various properties (including My Little Pony , Magic: The Gathering , Tonka, Playskool, and Transformers ) to Infogrames (later known and currently operating as Atari SA) for US$100 million in 2000, buying back the rights for US$65 million in June 2005. [21]
In 2001, Tonka trucks were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York. [22] The Winifred Museum in Winifred, Montana, has a collection of more than 3,000 Tonka toys. [23] In 2002, Ford made its very first partnership with Tonka with the Mighty F-350 concept. [24]
Thirteen video games based on the toys were released between 1996 and 2006. A majority of these titles were released by Hasbro Interactive and its later re-brandings as Infogrames Interactive and Atari Interactive, although a small number of titles for Nintendo platforms were released by TDK Mediactive under a sub-licensing agreement from Infogrames. [25]
| Game Title | Release Date | Platforms | Developer | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tonka Construction | August 20, 1996 | Microsoft Windows | Vortex Media Arts | Hasbro Interactive |
| Tonka Search & Rescue | October 15, 1997 | Media Station | ||
| Tonka Garage | April 7, 1998 | |||
| Tonka Construction 2 | October 2, 1999 | ImaginEngine Magellan Interactive | ||
| Tonka Raceway | December 6, 1999 | Microsoft Windows Game Boy Color | Media Station | |
| Tonka Space Station | November 6, 2000 | Microsoft Windows PlayStation | Data Design Interactive | |
| Tonka Monster Trucks | September 25, 2001 | Microsoft Windows | Infogrames Interactive | |
| Tonka Search & Rescue 2 | November 15, 2002 | Artech Studios | ||
| Tonka Construction Site | May 30, 2002 | Game Boy Color | Cosmigo | TDK Mediactive [lower-alpha 1] |
| Tonka Town | Late 2003 | Microsoft Windows | ImaginEngine | Atari Interactive |
| Tonka: Rescue Patrol | November 18, 2003 | GameCube | Lucky Chicken Games | TDK Mediactive [lower-alpha 2] |
| Tonka Firefighter | February 27, 2004 | Microsoft Windows | Boston Animation, Inc. | Atari Interactive |
| Tonka: On the Job | November 15, 2006 | Microsoft Windows Game Boy Advance | Webfoot Technologies | THQ |
| Title | Premiere date | End date | Network | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Challenge of the GoBots | September 8, 1984 | 1985 | First-run syndication | co-production with Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Pound Puppies | September 13, 1986 | December 19, 1987 | ABC |
| Title | Premiere date | Network | Co-production with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Star Fairies | October 26, 1985 | Syndication | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Pound Puppies | ABC |
| # | Title | Release date | Co-production with |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords | March 21, 1986 | Hanna-Barbera Productions and Clubhouse Pictures |
| 2 | Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw | March 18, 1988 | Tristar Pictures, Carolco Pictures, Atlantic/Kushner-Locke, The Maltese Companies, Cuckoo's Nest Studio, and Wang Film Productions |
| 3 | Tonka Tough Truck Adventures: The Biggest Show on Wheels! (Direct-to-Video; CGI) | September 28, 2004 | Hasbro Studios, SD Entertainment, and Paramount Home Entertainment |
In 2012, an animated film based on the trucks toy line was in development. It was to be produced by Sony Pictures Animation, Hasbro Studios, and Happy Madison Productions, and to be distributed by Columbia Pictures. [26] A script was written by Happy Madison alumnus Fred Wolf, and was to be produced by Adam Sandler and Jack Giarraputo, Brian Goldner (CEO and president of Hasbro) and Bennett Schneir (Hasbro's senior vice president and managing director of motion pictures). [26]
Atari is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA. The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, California, United States in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles, and home computers. The company's products, such as Pong and the Atari 2600, helped define the electronic entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid-1980s.
The Atari Lynx is a 16-bit fourth-generation hand-held game console released by Atari Corporation in September 1989 in North America and 1990 in Europe and Japan. It was the first handheld game console with a color liquid-crystal display. Powered by a 4 MHz 65C02 8-bit CPU and a custom 16-bit blitter, the Lynx was more advanced than Nintendo's monochrome Game Boy, released two months earlier. It also competed with Sega's Game Gear and NEC's TurboExpress, released the following year.
Hasbro, Inc. is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herman Hassenfeld and is incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of Kenner, Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, and Wizards of the Coast, among others. As of August 2020, over 81.5% of its shares were held by large financial institutions.
Backyard Sports is a video game series released for consoles, computers, and mobile devices created by Humongous Entertainment. The series is best known for starring a diverse cast of fictional children as well as child versions of famous professional sports athletes, such as Albert Pujols, Paul Pierce, Barry Bonds, Tim Duncan, Clint Mathis, Kevin Garnett, Tom Brady, David Ortiz, Joe Thornton, and Andy Macdonald. The Backyard Sports series was previously licensed by the five major professional American sports leagues: Major League Baseball (MLB), Major League Soccer (MLS), the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL), as well as their affiliated players associations. The series has changed ownership and developers several times since Humongous's 2005 closure; it is currently owned by a dedicated company called Backyard Sports LLC, which bought the series' rights in 2021. Playground Productions is the series' current publisher, having rebooted the series in 2024.
Parker Brothers was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. Among its products were Monopoly, Clue, Sorry!, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, Bop It, Scrabble, and Probe. The trade name became defunct with former products being marketed under the "Hasbro Gaming" label, with the logo shown on Monopoly games.
MicroProse is an American video game publisher and developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the Civilization and X-COM series. Most of their internally developed titles were vehicle simulation and strategy games.
Kenner Products, known simply as Kenner, is an American toy brand owned by Hasbro. Kenner Products began as a toy company founded in 1946, going on to produce several highly recognizable toys and merchandise lines including action figures for the original series of Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Batman as well as die cast models.
K'Nex is a construction toy system created by Joel Glickman. It was first introduced in America in 1992. K'Nex is designed and produced by K'Nex Industries Inc. of Hatfield, Pennsylvania. K'Nex was purchased by Florida-based company Basic Fun! in 2018.
Pound Puppies is a toy line that was created by Tonka in the 1980s. It later inspired an animated TV special, two animated TV series, and a feature film. Shipments of the toys over five years generated sales of $300 million in 35 countries. The brand generated more than $1 billion in retail sales by 2002.
Playskool is an American brand of educational toys and games for children. The former Playskool manufacturing company was a subsidiary of the Milton Bradley Company and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Playskool's last remaining plant in the aforementioned city was shut down in 1984, and Playskool became a brand of Hasbro, which had acquired Milton Bradley that same year.
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Europress was a British magazine and software publisher based in Adlington, near Macclesfield, Cheshire. Their magazine publishing business was previously known as Database Publications. The software division was renamed in 1999 to Actualize.
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Humongous Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1992, the company developed multiple edutainment franchises, most prominently Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam and Spy Fox, which, combined, sold over 15 million copies and earned more than 400 awards of excellence.
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Toy Biz, Inc. was a toy manufacturer, originally founded in Montreal, Quebec as Charan Toys. The company is best known for holding the Marvel Comics toy license from 1990 to 2006.
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