Tonka is an American brand and former manufacturer of toy trucks.[3] The company is known for making steel toy models of construction type trucks and machinery. Maisto International, which makes die-cast vehicles, acquired the rights to use the Tonka name in a line of 1:64 scale, featuring mostly trucks.
Tonka began as "Mound Metalcraft", a gardening tools company, in the fall of 1946 in Mound, Minnesota.[4] Lynn Everett Baker (1898–1964), Avery F. Crounse, and Alvin F. Tesch created the company in an old schoolhouse.[4] Their building's former occupant, the Streater Company, had made and patented several toys, including toy trucks.[5] E. C. Streater was not interested in the toy business so they approached Mound Metalcraft. The three men at Mound Metalcraft thought they might make a good sideline to their other products.[6]
After some modifications to the design by Alvin Tesch and the addition of a new logo created by Erling Eklof, the company began selling metal toys, which soon became the primary business. The logo was based on a University of Minnesota drafting student's sketch by Donald B. Olson, who later became the company's Chief Industrial Engineer. The logo used the Dakota Sioux word tanka, which means "great" or "big".[7]
In November 1955, Mound Metalcraft changed its name to "Tonka Toys Incorporated".[8] From 1947 to 1957, their logo was an oval, showing the Tonka Toys name in red above blue ocean waves with seagulls overhead, honoring nearby Lake Minnetonka.[9][5]
From 1958 to 1961, the logo no longer included seagulls and the colors were changed to white, grey, and red.[5] The colors changed to red and gold in 1963. In 1978, the oval was removed and the company began using only the name Tonka on their toys.[5]
In 1964, Tonka acquired the Mell Manufacturing Company in Chicago, Illinois, allowing it to produce barbecue grills, eventually under the Tonka Firebowl label.[7]: 85–86