Tyco Toys
Tyco Toys is a division of the
Mattel toy company.
Mantua Metal Products was a
Woodbury Heights, New Jersey metalworks business founded by John Tyler and family. In the
1930s Mantua began to manufacture
HO scale model trains of
die-cast metal, and became a leading hobbyist brand. In the
1950s Mantua pioneered "ready-to-run" HO-scale model railroad kits under the
TYCO (for
Tyler
Company) brand. Many TYCO and Mantua die-cast products such as
steam engines are collector's items today.
Eventually the name changed to
TYCO Industries, under which name the company was sold in
1970 to
Consolidated Foods during an era of corporate
conglomerates. As a division of what became the Sara Lee Corporation, Tyco continued to grow. In the
1990s, the company branched out with other toys such as airplanes, clones of
Lego brand building elements (after the basic patent ran out in 1983), and
Sesame Street items. It purchased
Matchbox, a maker of model cars, in
1993. When Tyco was purchased by Mattel in
1998, it was the third largest toy company in the
United States. The brand survives as the Mattel
Tyco R/C division.
One of TYCO's oldest brand of RC cars is the
Tyco Rebound.
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.
Tyco Toys has no connection with either the similarly-named
Tyco International or , the maker of
Beanie Babies.
*
Tyco Trains Resource*
shabbir.com History of Tyco*
Canadian Broadcasting Company transcript of story about LEGO/Ritvik legal issues contains Tyco reference
