When was tonka trucks made

Back in the '70s, Tonka even had an elephant stand on one , just to prove their point. But if you've ever held one, you already know how indestructible they were -- here are 12 things you probably didn't know.

Mound Metalcraft began business in the fall of , working out of an old schoolhouse in Mound, Minnesota. The focus of the business? Making gardening equipment. But the three proprietors also had the foresight to buy the rights to some big, metal toys designed by the building's previous tenant.

Not that it mattered much: they may have only made a steam shovel and a crane pictured in the advertisement above , but they sold over 37, of them in the first year alone.

Needless to say, toys took priority over gardening, and in , the whole company was renamed Tonka. After the war, there was a bit of an excess in the supply of steel, which made producing the oversized and metal-laden toys cheap to produce.

The Tonka Firebowl seems a bit out of left field, but to be fair it was pretty slick, especially for the s. It even included a rotisserie feature for even cooking. Though these toy trucks were a side line of their company, the partners exhibited them at the New York Toy Fair in under the name of Tonka, named after Lake Minnetonka, which their facility overlooked.

That first year they sold 37, toy cranes and steam shovels, and Mound Metalcraft shifted their company's focus to manufacturing toy trucks. In the first few years, Tonka toy trucks were a variety of color combinations, and dump trucks, wreckers, semis, and box vans were added to the product line.

By , the company had outgrown their old school house manufacturing site and the Mound Metalcraft name. They became Tonka Toys, Incorporated and moved to a new manufacturing facility along Lake Minnetonka. Growth was so great that a 50, square foot addition was soon added to their new facility. During the s, the Universal Jeep was added to their product line. Army version and the U. Air Force version. In , Tonka Toys became a public company with the original partners retiring and being replaced by Gordon Batdorf and Russell Wenkstern.

Both Gordon and Russ had been working at Tonka when they moved into their new positions. Each company we work with has specific experience requirements for their drivers. In order for you to receive the best possible offers, please make sure your answers above are accurate prior to submitting.

The plastic parts on the new trucks are an insult to the vintage trucks. I guess there is more profit in a watered down version of the classic toys. Oh well, a happy toddler is worth it. What was the last year tonka made the trucks of metal? And how can i know what year a truck was made and its value today? Your email address will not be published.

Find Trucking Jobs. Regional Truck Driving. Dedicated Trucking. Tanker Driver. It's their parents the folks at toymaker Funrise are going after with these life-size promotional trucks like the 10,pound Tonka T-Rex. The Van Nuys, Calif. The hope is that they'll inspire nostalgic adults who remember pushing Tonka trucks in the sandbox to buy pint-size versions for their little ones.

Originally made from steel at a Minnesota factory, Tonka trucks have been imported from Asia for the last couple of decades.

But there's a surprising twist to the story: Now the new Chinese chief executive of Funrise is exploring how to make at least a few Tonka trucks in the United States. Cheng, 23, who is too young to remember when toys were made anywhere but Asia. Says Cheng: "We're trying very hard to bring a Tonka vehicle back to the U. His father, Y. The company's first target was Gazillion Bubbles, a "premium" soap-bubble solution it's been selling since While it was cheap to mix and bottle the solution in Vietnam, plastic bottles filled with mostly water are heavy, which means shipping containers reached their weight capacity before they were fully loaded.

Executives thought, If beverage companies can produce bottled water in the U.