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Tyco Toys

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Tyco International or Ty.

Tyco Toys
FormerlyMantua Metal Products (1926–57)
Company typePrivate (1926–70)
Subsidiary (1970–97)
IndustryEntertainment
Founded1926
FounderJohn Tyler
Defunct1997; 28 years ago (1997)
FateAcquired by Mattel, became a brand of it
Headquarters
Woodbury Heights, New Jersey
,
US
Products
Brands
Parent
Subsidiaries
  • Illco (1992–97)
  • Ideal (1989–97)
Websitemattel.com/tyco

Tyco Toys was an American toy manufacturer. It was acquired by Mattel in 1997,[1][2] becoming one of its brands.

History

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Founding as Mantua

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The company was established as Mantua Metal Products by John Tyler in 1926, producing electric motors for model boats out of his home in Mantua, New Jersey. After seven years, the business was moved to Woodbury Heights, New Jersey, where it packaged motors with HO scale model train kits.[3]

From 1942 to 1945, the production of model railroad products was suspended as the company participated in the manufacturing of precision measuring and mapping equipment for the U.S. Army and Navy in World War II. The company received the Army-Navy ‘E’ Award for excellence in production in 1945. After the war, they converted the plant back to the production of model railroading equipment.

Formation of Tyco

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In the 1960s, TYCO changed its focus from train kits to ready-to-run trains sold in hobby shops and added HO-scale electric racing sets, or "slot car" sets. A wide range of slot cars and repair parts, track sections, controllers and accessories were also available.[4] In 1967, Mantua merged with the Tyler Manufacturing Company, a separate company created by John Tyler, to sell a new line of ready-to-run HO trains under the name of Tyco Toys.[5] 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 conglomerates.[4] At this time, Tyco was headquartered at Moorestown NJ, where sets were assembled with imported models. As a division of what became the Sara Lee Corporation, Tyco continued to grow.

In 1977, Norman Tyler, the son of Tyco's founder, bought the original factory and split off Mantua as a separate company after Sara Lee began importing cheaper, less detailed model trains from Asia.[3]

By the early 1980s, Tyco dominated the market in electric racing and its model train offerings had peaked. During this time, the company introduced its US-1 Trucking line, as well as radio-controlled vehicles, and began pushing other toys over trains in its catalogues.[6]

In 1984, Tyco produced its own interlocking brick product, "Super Blocks". Super Blocks were compatible with Lego, and were made following the basic Lego patent's expiry in 1978. Lego attempted to halt the production of Super Blocks in a lawsuit, which was later won by Tyco in 1987.[7]

Public company

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By 1986, Tyco became a publicly traded company and had $87.7 million in revenue.[8][5] Thegcompany th n eseveral popular toy companies. In May 1989, the company purchased the View-MasterTycop, Inc., which brought the View-Master line of stereowned, Magna Doodle magnetic drawing toys, and Ideal Nursery line of dolls to Tyco.[9] The company finished out with $384 million in revenue.[10]

Tyco's musical toys of the late 1980s and early 1990s included the Tyco Hot Lixx and Tyco Hot Keyz, an electronic guitar[11] and keytar respectively.[12]

By 1990, shareholders had become increasingly unhappy with the leadership of chairman Benson Seltzer. After taking the company public, he maintained control of the board by filling it with family members and loyalists. In the years that followed, the company's stock valuation fell and revenue was impacted by Benson's self-serving investments.[8] Seltzer and his two sons ultimately left the company and sold their remaining stock in July 1991. The news made Tyco's market valuation increase by 11%.[13] President and CEO Richard Grey was then also named chairman.[14]

In 1992, Tyco purchased the Illco Toy Company, bringing Illco's extensive line of toys based on the children's show Sesame Street to Tyco. Later that year, the company signed a 10-year licensing agreement with Children's Television Workshop.[15] Tyco also consolidated its domestic packing and distribution operations near Portland, Oregon by closing its plant in Moorestown, New Jersey at the end of the year. [16] In the mid-1990s, as a bigger toy company, company headquarters was moved to Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. In 1992, Tyco purchased the Matchbox brand of scale model cars for $106 million. The acquisition helped the company expand in international markets, such as England and Germany.[5][17][18]

Across the late 1980s and early 1990s, some of Tyco's most popular toys came from their Radio Control division, with over 100 different models manufactured primarily through their partnership with Taiyo RC (Japan). In the 1992 Tyco Catalogue used in industry toy fairs to sell and promote products to major retail buyers, the first 20 pages was consumed by their lineup of radio control toys for the year. These products and their manufacturing deal with Taiyo became so important that they took a significant ownership stake in the company, and began to strongly influence the features and design of the vehicles. This resulted in all Taiyo models, both those sold under the Taiyo brand in Japan and worldwide, and those sold by Tyco changing from predominantly realistic models of actual vehicles (such as the 1988 Lamborghini Countach and 1989 Porsche 962) to less realistic products such as the 1994 Tyco Triple Wheels, 1993 Tyco Python, and 1997 Tyco Tantrum.

In the 1990s, the company also branched out with other toys such as airplanes. Its hit toy of 1990 was a set of small quintuplet dolls, called the Quints, developed by Bernard Loomis. With a growing stable of accessories, it had generated $20 million after 10 months on the market.[19] It made a hit in 1991 with their Disney's Little Mermaid dolls that were released in conjunction with the movie.[20]

Tyco's Sesame Street line increased dramatically in popularity in 1996, when the plush doll Tickle Me Elmo became the most sought-after toy of the Christmas season.[21] The toy was released that July, with the company expecting to sell around 400,000 units. By December, Tyco had its four factories in China scrambling to produce 1 million units before Christmas.[22]

Purchase by Mattel

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In November 1996, Mattel announced it would acquire Tyco.[23] At the time, Tyco was the third-largest toy company in the United States, with $709 million in sale the previous year.[23] The $755 million deal was approved by the FTC in March 1997 and nearly 10% (2,700 jobs) of the companies' combined workforce was eliminated. Mattel took a charge of $275 million for restructuring associated with the acquisition.[24]

The brand survived into the 2000s and beyond as the Mattel "Tyco R/C" division, while much of the Sesame Street line, Magna Doodle, and the View-Master were transferred to the Fisher-Price division. On February 23, 2019, Terry Flynn announced that Tyco was now a registered trademark of his Harden Creek Slot Cars, LLC." Flynn also has the Life Like trademark for Slot cars.[citation needed]

Legacy

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The Tyco model railroad business was bought back by the Tyler family in 1977, who revived them under the Mantua Industries brand. Tyco left the model railroad business after the 1993 catalog. Many of the Tyco model train products were subsequently manufactured by Mantua and by International Hobby Corporation (IHC). In 2001, Mantua stopped producing its model railroad lines and sold the business to the Model Power company, which continued to sell a few items such as steam engines and freight cars under its Mantua Classics brand. In early 2014, Model Power was acquired by Model Rectifier Corporation (MRC). The company continued to make the Mantua Classics line. (The locomotives are also available with DCC and sound.) In 2018, MRC sold its line of HO model trains to Lionel Corporation who slowly reintroduced the line under their own name.[citation needed]

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One product of Tyco, the Mutator R/C car, plays a central role to the plot of the 1997 holiday-family comedy movie, Home Alone 3, where it is used as a concealing device by a quartet of terrorist agents to hide an extremely classified microchip that they intend to smuggle to North Korea and later ends up in the hands of the protagonist, a chickenpox-stricken boy, after a luggage mix up at airport security.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "MATTEL AMENDS ITS MERGER AGREEMENT WITH TYCO TOYS". New York Times. November 23, 1996. Retrieved March 29, 2013. Mattel Inc., the nation's biggest toymaker, said yesterday that it had amended its $755 million merger agreement with Tyco Toys Inc. to reflect a change in the conversion of Tyco shares. A Mattel spokesman, Glenn Bozarth, said the amendment called for holders of Tyco class C shares to receive preferred Mattel shares.
  2. ^ Sorkin, Andrew Ross (July 23, 1997). "Tyco Toys Goes To Mattel Roster". New York Times. Retrieved March 29, 2013. Mattel Inc., the toy maker in El Segundo, Calif., said yesterday that as expected it had divided responsibilities for its newly acquired domestic Tyco Toys business among its three roster shops: Foote, Cone & Belding in Los Angeles, Ogilvy & Mather Los Angeles and the New York office of Young & Rubicam Advertising. The Tyco business, with billings estimated at $55 million, had been handled for three years by D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles Communications in New York, a unit of MacManus Group. Our decision to consolidate our advertising among our three incumbent agencies is based on our longstanding strategic partner relationships and our need to maintain the greatest possible advertising efficiencies and creative momentum, said Bruce Stein, president of Mattel Worldwide. Mattel acquired Tyco Toys at the end of March.
  3. ^ a b Kent, Bill (December 7, 1997). "NEW JERSEY & CO.; Maintaining the Model Train Tradition in a Digital World". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  4. ^ a b Train Collector magazine Issue September 28, 2013, p8 within a feature "The Integration of Model Railways and Slot Cars" by James Day and Tony Stanford. The Journal of the Train Collectors Society
  5. ^ a b c Bryant, Adam (May 7, 1992). "COMPANY NEWS; Tyco Toys Planning to Acquire Matchbox". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  6. ^ Cook, Tony (June 11, 2022). "TYCO's Last Best Year: 1982". HO Collector. Retrieved March 12, 2025.
  7. ^ Mayer, Caroline E. (September 1, 1987). "LEGO, Tyco Each Declare Victory In Battle Of The Bricks". Washington Post. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
  8. ^ a b Cowan, Alison Leigh (November 25, 1990). "Wall Street; Is Tyco's Chief Loosening His Grip?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  9. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; Tyco to Acquire View-Master Ideal". The New York Times. May 24, 1989. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  10. ^ Press, The Associated (July 14, 1992). "COMPANY NEWS; TYCO TOYS TO BUY UNIVERSAL MATCHBOX FOR $106 MILLION". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  11. ^ Nye, Dean. "Tyco Hot Lixx toy guitar commercial 1989)". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  12. ^ "Tyco Hot Keyz - Specifications, pictures, prices, links, reviews and ratings". sonicstate.com. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  13. ^ Cowan, Alison Leigh (July 4, 1991). "Tyco's Head and Sons Out; Company's Stock Jumps 11%". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  14. ^ "Chief at Tyco Adds a Title". The New York Times. July 27, 1991. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  15. ^ "Company News; Tyco Toys Signs 10-Year Licensing Agreement". The New York Times. October 15, 1992. Retrieved November 6, 2016.
  16. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; TYCO TOYS TO CLOSE A PLANT AND LAY OFF 300 WORKERS". The New York Times. September 1, 1992. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  17. ^ Press, The Associated (July 14, 1992). "COMPANY NEWS; TYCO TOYS TO BUY UNIVERSAL MATCHBOX FOR $106 MILLION". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  18. ^ "Tyco-Matchbox Merger". New York Times. October 7, 1992. Retrieved March 29, 2013. Tyco Toys Inc. has completed its acquisition of the Universal Matchbox Group.
  19. ^ Queenan, Joe (December 23, 1990). "Five Babes in Toyland". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 12, 2025.
  20. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; TYCO CHRISTMAS GLUM ON TOY CANCELLATIONS". The New York Times. December 5, 1992. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  21. ^ Staff (January 13, 1997). "Just Tickled". People. Vol. 47, no. 1. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  22. ^ Ramirez, Anthony (December 8, 1996). "Waiting for Elmo". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  23. ^ a b Collins, Glenn (November 19, 1996). "A Surprise in Toyland: Mattel to Buy Tyco". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
  24. ^ Press, The Associated (March 21, 1997). "F.T.C. APPROVES MATTEL'S PURCHASE OF TYCO TOYS". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
[edit]
  • Official website Edit this at Wikidata
  • Tyco Collectors – an effort by vintage toy collectors to document all known Tyco R/C models and their specifications based on photographic evidence.
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