Remco
Remco Industries, Inc. was a toy company founded in the 1940s that was best known for toys marketed and sold in the late 1950s and 1960s, like the Johnny Reb Cannon and Mighty Matilda Atomic Aircraft Carrier. The slogan was "Every Boy Wants a Remco Toy...And So Do Girls!"[1] Remco was founded by two cousins: Ike Heller and Saul Robbins. The name Remco comes from the two words "Remote Control". It was located in Newark, NJ, then later in nearby Harrison, NJ. Most toys were modeld with just the city, but the street address listed on the back of the 1960 light bulldog tank box is "113 North 13th Street, Newark 7, NJ." The address on the instruction sheet for factory service return of the 1966 Lost in Space Robot is "Cape May St., Harrison, NJ." In the mid-1960s, Remco acquired several licenses for popular culture acts such as the Beatles, Monkees, Munsters, Lost in Space and Batman.
In 1964, Remco was acquired by Azrak-Hamway International, Inc. (AHI), a toy company, in New York, NY. In 1997, Jakks Pacific acquired Child Guidance and Remco from Azrak-Hamway International.
The company was known by toy collectors for their many Universal Monsters figures produced during the 1980s. These figures were a continuation of the license and figures first produced by AHI during the 1970s.
Steel Tec was distributed by Remco Toys, Inc. of New York, NY, from 1992-1997 and was a division of parent company Azrak Hamway International.
Toys
- 1953 Medicine Chest
- 1955 Big Max (magnetic robot that picked off iron slugs from battery operated conveyor belt and placed them into slots)
- 1958 Giant Wheel Cowboys'n Indians Game
- 1958 Giant Wheel Thrills'n Spills Horse Race Game
- 1959 Coney Island Penny Machine (Combination crane game and coin bank) [2]
- 1959 Flying Fox Airliner
- 1959 Little Red Spinning Wheel
- 1959 Movieland Drive-In Theater (consisted of cars, a drive in board with car spaces, a place to list "Featured Movies" along with blue and white double-bill cards that slid into the marquee; the "movie" was a film strip that projected by a battery operated light bulb onto a 4"x6" screen that attached to the drive in. Titles included Heckle and Jeckle, Have Gun Will Travel, Mighty Mouse, Farmer Al Falfa)
- 1960 Frogman the US Navy Commando
- 1960 Light Bulldog Tank #706 Montgomary Ward
- 1960 Whirlybird Helicopter
- 1961 Hippopotamus Electric Puzzle Game called Happy Hippopotamus Game
- 1961 Johnny Reb Cannon
- 1961 Mighty Matilda Aircraft Carrier
- 1961 Shark Remote Control Race Car
- 1962 Fascination Pool Game
- 1962 Arthur Showboat Theater Playset
- 1962 Littlechap Dolls
- 1963 Barracuda Submarine
- 1963 USMC Bazooka
- 1963 Super Car
- 1964 Beatles Figures
- 1964 Hamilton Invaders
- 1964 Project Yankee Doodle
- 1964 Monkey Division
- 1964 Lyndon B. Johnson Doll
- 1964 Senator Barry Goldwater Doll
- 1964 Munsters
- 1966 Batman Wrist Radios
- 1965 Bulldog Army Tank
- 1965 Duffy's Daredevils
- 1965 Kennedy Airport Air Traffic Control Center
- 1965 Screaming Mee Mee-e Rifle
- 1966 Lost in Space Robot
- 1966 Pussy Meow Doll
- 1967 Mighty Mike Motorized Trucks
- 1967 Polo Pony
- 1967 Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Sub sets
- 1967 Star Trek Astro Cruiser
- 1968 Land of the Giants Space Sled
- 1968 Astro Train
- 1968 Boeing United Airlines 727 Toy Airplane (4.7ft long)
- 1969 Baby Sister Grow-A-Tooth
- 1969 Tru-Smoke Trucks
- 1969 Tumbling Tom Boy Doll
- 1970 Speedrail Monorail
- 1970 Dune Buggy Wheelies
- 1970 Mister Brain
- 1970 Monkees Figures
- 1971 Finger Ding Paper Dolls
- 1971 Baby Laugh a Lot
- 1973 Partridge Family Doll
- 1975 Star Trek Utility Belt
- 1976 I Dream of Jeannie Bottle
- 1976 Ronald McDonald Playset and figures
- 1977 System 7 Rifle
- 1978 Energized Spider-Man
- 1978 Kiss Makeup Kit
- 1978 Mickey Mouse Candy Factory
- 1978 Bill Cosby's Kids
- 1980 Universal Monsters Figures
- 1981 Dukes of Hazzard
- 1982 AWA Action Figures
- 1982 Sgt. Rock for DC
- 1982 Warlord for DC
- 1983 Crystar Action Figures
- 1984 Conan Action Figures
- 1984 Mighty Crusaders Action Figures
- 1985 AWA Remco Action FiguresAWA Wrestling Figures
- 1986 Karate Kid Action Figures
- 1987 My Sweet 16 Play Cosmetics
- 1992 Steel Tec Motorized Construction Set
- 1994 Swat Kats action figures
References
- ^ "You Can Tell It’s Mattel… It’s Swell!", Tim Forbes, American Heritage
- ^ "The Magic Market", Time, Dec. 14, 1959