#604 RICO / TONKA - HOT ROD (Around 1977)

Tonka is another great toy company from the U.S.A. They were founded in the 40s and, even today, the name is still being used by current toy manufacturers. The original company does not exist anymore, though. As it usually happen, the original company did not manufcature toys at the time of its foundation, but at some point they saw some bussiness there, and changed the production to toys.

Mound Metalcraft was founded in 1946 in Mound, Minnesota, with the intention of making and selling garden appliances. Their first products were two tie-rack models. The founders were: Lynn Everett Baker, Avery F. Crounse, and Alvin F. Tesch. At some point in 1947, they thought it would be a good idea to include a few toys in their portfolio, and manufactured the first Tonka trucks. By then, the company already had a new logo and a new name: Tonka, a variation of the Dakota Sioux word for "big" or "great".

Taken from underconsideration.com

Toys became the main source of incomes for the company, so in 1955 Mound Metalcraft changed its name to Tonka Toys. During that first year, 37,000 metal trucks were manufactured, counting two models: a steam shovel and a crane.

Like every other company those years, they mostly used metal parts, that were later replaced with plastic parts from the late 70s on. The toys are characterized for being very sturdy.

The company Tonka bought Kenner Parker in 1987 and was later acquired by Hasbro in 1991. Currently, the Tonka brand is property of Maisto, that has a line of 1:64 trucks sold under this brand/series.

Information up to this point: mostly Wikipedia

But since I am from Spain, and this blog deals with many Spanish toys, my interest to Tonka is related to the licenses Tonka gave to other toy manufacturers around the world. In the particular case of Spain, it was Rico that manufactured many Tonka-licensed toys for the Spanish market. Toys are recognisable because Tonka always gave to its toys an unique, sturdy, bulky look.

One of the most famous lines back then was the "Sansón" trucks (Engl. Samson, like the Biblical character of enormous strength) That I would like to comment in this blog soon. Other series was "Diablos", and I am sure there were some more series available.

The Hot Rod shown in this entry is not a genuine Tonka, note that the brand TONKA is marked in the rubber tyres and the front grill, but this car is actually a Rico product, manufactured with the original casts by Tonka. It was sold under the line "Autos Locos", which roughly translates as "Crazy Cars". The name is probably not randomly chosen, since the TV series "Wacky Races" was also dubbed to Spanish as "Autos Locos", so maybe this name was appealing to the audience of the TV show.

I must say I have seen this line for the first time today, so now I am thinking that the "Old Cars" by Playtoy might be an attempt to copy this particular Rico series. Note that the reference 503 of the "Old Cars" is very similar to this model presented here.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: HOT ROD ("AUTOS LOCOS")
• Scale: Maybe 1:24
• Year: Around 1977
• Company: Rico (Spain) / Tonka (U.S.A.)
• Size: approx. 12 cm

#489 RICO - HONDA SANSÓN / DIABLOS (Ref. 702) (Around 1975)

Rico was one of the most important toymakers in Spain at the time, had a history that spanned over decades, and made many different types of toys in Ibi, Alicante. We already talked about them in previous articles.

What you may not know, is that Rico had the license to manufacture and sell Tonka toys in Spain. Their first Tonka product was a line of sturdy tin trucks, that were called “Sansón” (Sansón is the Spanish name of Samson, the biblical character), from which I expected to write some other time.

These had very thick axles and plastic wheels, and very robust metal bodies. Most of them had some gimmick, like a crane, or a shovel, or some practicable part behind the cabin. They looked quite futuristic for its age, since they were made in the 60s, both in Japan and Spain (in Spain surely later, maybe the second half of the decade)

Since that line was very successful (both the normal line and the “Mini-Sansón” line), Rico decided to extend the name to other Tonka products, like this race car, which has very little in common with the trucks mentioned above: they’re also sturdy, made of some kidn of metal (maybe very thick tin), but they represent a different type of car and has a friction motor inside. Note that the package is labelled with “Serie Sansón” and then “ Diablos” (“Devils”).

There were three of these cars made, a Honda (in Orange, Ref 702), a Chaparral (in green, Ref. 706), a Porsche (in blue, Ref. 712) and a Lotus (in red, Ref, 716). These are also depicted in the box.
The car has dark windows, so the mechanism remains hidden, and it is decorated with some chromed parts in the front and in the back of the car. The base in black tin is marked “Rico” and “Made in Spain”.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: HONDA “DIABLOS” (Ref. 702)
• Year: Around 1975
• Company: RICO (Spain)
• Size: Around 11 cm.
• Scale: Unknown

#274 GOBOTS – SPAY-C, REST-Q, ZERO and FLIP-TOP (Nrs. 14, 15, 39 and 40) (1983, 1984 and 1985)

In this entry I will present 4 more robots from my Gobots/ Machine Robo collection. The robots belong to the same series are these presented in entry #179, that’s the small “MR” series. There’s nothing in particular to comment about these, since they’re relatively common models.

SPAY-C (MR-14) and REST-Q (MR-15)

ZERO (MR-39) and FLIP-TOP (MR-40)

UPDATE (JUNE 2018) I bought the card for Spay-C, so I include it here for completion. It might be commented in future entries again. The front card shows a picture of the robot and its alternate mode (in the blister card, the toy came in its robot form). The backcard shows several models, mostly from the first produced (low reference numbers).

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: SPAY-C, REST-Q, ZERO and FLIP-TOP  (Nrs. 14, 15, 39 and 40)
• Alternate Names: SHUTTLE ROBO, AMBULANCE ROBO, ZERO ROBO and KAMAN ROBO (Machine Robo names/ Japan)
• Toy Line: Go-Bots
• Year: 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1985
• Company: Popy/ Bandai (Japan) / Tonka (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 7 cm (between  2’’ and 3’’) in robot mode.

#171 GOBOTS – DIVE-DIVE, NIGHT RANGER and BAD BOY (Nrs. 33, 37 and 47) (1983 and 1984)

I discovered this line recently, as I bought a mixed lot of transformers in which some Gobots and some knock-offs were included. These three Gobots, however, do not come from that lot, but from an exchange with Romain. Thanks!

I have to say, that I was quite surprised with the quality of these toys, which I always considered to be low quality, Transformers knock-offs, since I knew TFs first, and comparisons are unavoidable.

 DIVE-DIVE (Nr. 33)

The Gobots are transforming robots, originally created by Popy of Japan in 1982, and originally named “Machine Robo”. “Gobots” is the name given by the American toymaker Tonka, as they imported the line to the U.S.A. First they used the "Machine Men" name (in Europe it would be "Machine Robo"), but it was later changed to "Gobots".  Hasbro had done almost the same thing with the “Transformers” line one year before, named originally “Diaclone” by its creator Takara, and first sold under the "Diaclone" brand.

In both lines, the robots have their own personality and characteristics, but Transformers have deeper backgrounds and bios than Gobots. The Gobots had two TV series produced by Hanna-Barbera in 1984 and 1986 (the second one dedicated to the “Rock Lords”, which is a different toy line, a spin-off of the Gobots).  

BAD BOY (Nr. 47)

In the first years, the Gobots sold very well in the U.S., but later, they were overtaken by Transformers, because Hasbro was a bigger company and had more money to spend in promoting its toy-line. Hasbro Toys were also far more sophisticated toys, with more complex transformations, included accessories, and so on.

It is important to mention that there were bigger Gobots, with more complex transformations. Hasbro’s Transformers in this size neither have spectacular transformations, so the critics above do not always apply. About durability, my impression is that the articulations in Gobots tend to come loose and are not so durable, although plastic and metallic parts have great quality.

Anyway, Gobots are great toy robots, and even though the transformation is not always very good, I find them especially charming. As they came without accessories, they are most of the times complete, so that’s one thing less to worry about.

 NIGHT RANGER (Nr. 37)

The three robots presented in this entry are three beautiful examples of this collection. Bad Boy doesn't have an specially beautiful robot-mode, but as a bomber is absolutely great. Night Ranger is very similar to a Transformers called Groove from 1986.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: DIVE-DIVE, NIGHT RANGER and BAD BOY (Nr. 33, 37 and 47)
• Alternate Names: SUBMARINE ROBO, HARLEY ROBO and FAIRCHILD ROBO (Machine Robo names/ Japan)
• Toy Line: Go-Bots
• Year: 1983, 1983 and 1984
• Company: Popy/ Bandai (Japan) / Tonka (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 7 cm (between  2’’ and 3’’) in robot mode.