Tonka

Tonka is an American manufacturer of trucks and construction equipment as toys made ​​of tin.

The September 19, 1946 in Mound, Minnesota, USA by the three entrepreneurs Lynn Everett Baker ( 1898-1964 ), Avery F. Crounse, and Alvin F. Tesch -ups was initially Mound Metalcraft and produced tie metal stand. Originally they wanted to produce garden tools.

Since the business was bad and many raw materials ( sheets ) remained at the camp, the three founders decided to produce from the existing material toys made ​​of tin. Were prepared essentially trucks and construction machinery, which were up to 50 cm long. With these dimensions toys were placed in the market, as it had never before existed in such magnitude. Also unique at the time was the enormous stability since except vigorous sheet few other materials were used. The peculiarity of the tonka construction was that of connecting the individual sheet metal screws or rivets were used, but were bent sheet metal parts and large plugged into each other with tongues. This resulted in very stable, closed housing. The use of unusually thick plates for toys, strong axles and a few plastic add-on parts made ​​the toys at exceptionally 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 (company) has been changed to Tonka and only produced from then on toy vehicles.

In 1987, the Tonka Kenner Parker Toys Inc with the brands Kenner and Parker Brothers by General Mills.

In 1991, the Tonka brand was sold to Hasbro, which now sells plastic toys under the Tonka brand name, which ruined the reputation of the indestructibility of the toys. Only the old tin - Tonka enjoy with collectors, especially in the USA great popularity.