Tyco Toys is an American toy manufacturer. Since 1997 it has been a division of the
MattelMattel, Inc. is the world's largest toy company based on revenue. The products it produces include Fisher Price, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles. The company's name is derived from...
toyA toy is any object that can be used for play. Toys are associated commonly with children and pets. Playing with toys is often thought to be an enjoyable means of training the young for life in human society. Different materials are used to make toys enjoyable and cuddly to both young and old...
company.
History
Mantua Metal Products was a
Woodbury Heights, New JerseyWoodbury Heights is a Borough located in Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2000 census, the borough had a total population of 2,988....
,
metalworksMetallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
business founded in 1926 by John Tyler and family. In the 1930s Mantua began to manufacture
HO scaleHO or H0 is the most popular scale of model railway in the world.According to the NMRA standard S-1.2 predominantly used in North America, in HO scale, represents 1 real foot ; this ratio works out to about 1:87.1. According to the MOROP standard NEM 010 predominantly used in Europe, the scale is...
model trainsRailway modelling or model railroading is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale...
of
die-castDie casting is a metal casting process that is characterized by forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mold cavity. The mold cavity is created using two hardened tool steel dies which have been machined into shape and work similarly to an injection mold during the process...
metal, and became a leading hobbyist brand.
From 1942 to 1945, production of model railroad products was suspended as the company participated in manufacturing of precision measuring and mapping equipment for the U.S. Army and Navy in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The company received the
Army-Navy ‘E’ AwardThe Army-Navy "E" Award was an honor presented to a company during World War II for excellence in production of war equipment. The award was also known as the Army-Navy Production Award. The award would consist of a pennant for the plant and emblems for all employees in the plant at the time the...
for Excellence in Production in 1945. After the war, they converted the plant back to production of model railroading equipmen (for Tyler Company) brand. Many TYCO and Mantua die-cast products, such as
steam engineA steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
s, are collector's items today.
In the 1960s, TYCO changed its focus from train kits to ready-to-run trains sold in hobby shops and also added HO-scale electric racing, or "
slot carA slot car is a powered miniature auto or other vehicle that is guided by a groove or slot in the track on which it runs. A pin or blade extends from the bottom of the car into the slot...
" sets. By the 1970s, TYCO shifted sales and marketing to a consumer-oriented, mass marketing focus. Eventually the name changed to
TYCO Industries, under which name the company was sold in 1970 to Consolidated Foods during an era of corporate
conglomeratesA conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...
. As a division of what became the Sara Lee Corporation, Tyco continued to grow.
By the 1980s, Tyco dominated that market in electric racing, also producing the first "slot trucks" known as
US-1 TrucksIn 1981 Tyco Toys began selling HO scale, or 1/87 scale slot trucks. Similar to HO Scale racing sets, it had two lane track with various lengths and shapes available, and, unlike its racing counterparts, the vehicles traveled in the normal fashion employed on American roads...
, as well as the radio control category. Diversification continued with the 1989 purchase of the View-Master/Ideal Group, which brought to the company the
View-MasterView-Master is a device for viewing seven 3-D images on a paper disk. Although the View-Master is now considered a children's toy, it was originally marketed as a way for viewers to enjoy stereograms of colorful and picturesque tourist attractions.-1939–66: stereoscopic sightseeing:In 1911,...
,
Magna DoodleMagna Doodle is the original product name of a children's magnetic drawing toy, consisting of a drawing board, a magnetic stylus, and a few magnet shapes...
and the
Ideal NurseryIdeal Toy Company was founded as Ideal Novelty and Toy Company in New York in 1907 by Morris and Rose Michtom after they had invented the Teddy bear in 1903. The company changed its name to Ideal Toy Company in 1938...
line of dolls. In the 1990s, the company branched out with other toys such as airplanes, clones of
LegoLego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
brand building elements (after the basic patent ran out in 1983), and
Sesame StreetSesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
items. It made a hit in 1991 with their
Disney's Little MermaidThe Little Mermaid is a 1989 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name. Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, the film was originally released to theaters on November 14, 1989 and is the twenty-eighth film in...
dolls that were released during the same period the movie came to theaters. It purchased
MatchboxMatchbox is a popular toy brand which was introduced by Lesney Products in 1953 and is now owned by Mattel, Inc. The brand was so named as the original die-cast Matchbox toys were sold in boxes similar in style and size to those in which matches were sold...
, a maker of model cars, in 1993. In 1995, Tyco Preschool was named the primary toy licensee for the Children's Television Workshop. A year later Tyco Preschool launched an extensive new line based on the popular children's program,
Sesame StreetSesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
. When Tyco was purchased by Mattel on March 27, 1997, it was the third largest toy company in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The brand survives as the Mattel
Tyco R/C division, while much of the Sesame Street line was transferred to the
Fisher-PriceFisher-Price is a company that produces toys for infants and children, headquartered in East Aurora, New York. Fisher-Price has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel since 1993.-History:...
division.
The Tyco model railroad business was purchased back by the Tyler family in 1977, who revived them under the Mantua Industries brand. Tyco exited the model railroad business after the 1993 catalog. Many of the Tyco model train products were then produced by Mantua and by International Hobby Corporation (IHC). In 2001, Mantua ceased production of its model railroad lines, and sold the model railroad business to the Model Power company, which continues to sell a few items such as steam engines as its Mantua Classics brand.
External links