This article is about the 20th-century toy company. For the given name, see
Remco (given name) .
Remco Industry Toy Manufacturing Founder
Key people
Marvin Azrak, Ezra Hamway Products Toys Owner Remco Industries (previous), Azrak-Hamway (previous), Jakks Pacific (previous)
Remco was an American toy company. Founded in the 1949[1] as Remco Industries, Inc., it is known for toys integrating technology and innovation from their inception.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, they produced the 'Johnny Reb Cannon', 'Mighty Matilda Atomic Aircraft Carrier', 'Remco Voice Control
, a record player and an album which played a voice giving landing and take-off instructions) and the tethered 'Electronic Falcon Plane' that "flies itself".
Starting in the late 1960s, 1970s, 1980s & 1990s it was known for licensed products from major brands like Star Trek, Superheroes from Marvel and DC comics, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars and creation of the wrestling action figure with their AWA Remco Action Figure line.
The company's slogan in its early TV commercials was, "Every Boy Wants a Remco Toy...And So Do Girls!"[2]
History
.
The boxes and toys were printed with just the company name and the city on them, but there were a few more clues as to the company's physical location on packaging. A 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." The Harrison location is now occupied by the Red Bull Arena , while the Newark location is now occupied by a furniture outlet.
Remco Motor Action Kit Toy Phonograph
In the mid-1960s, Remco acquired several licenses for
Lost In Space,
The Munsters ,
Batman and
Star Trek . However, the company often paid little heed to faithfulness to the property. For example, the merchandise Remco released for
Star Trek was usually generic toys from previous unrelated lines and had decals of the series simply placed on them, which is a technique called "label slapping."
[3] One popular toy in the early 1960s was the 24 inch long functioning scuba diver with mask, knife, utility belt, rifle, walkie-talkie, air tanks, and floating location buoy.
From the 1980s through the 1990s, Remco made a variety of generic diecast and plastic trucks and other vehicles, usually made about four inches long. Vehicles were attractive and sturdy, though not uniform in scale, and included a tanker truck, fire truck, delivery van, cherry picker truck, skid steer, Jeep, and many more. A few vehicles were larger, like the seven inch long "Tuff Ones" "Recyclable Waste Management Corp." truck with opening side doors for "cans", "glass", and "paper".
Bankruptcy & Sale
Remco filed for bankruptcy in 1971 and was acquired by Azrak-Hamway International, Inc. (AHI), a toy company, in New York City in 1974.
The company is 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.
In 1997, Jakks Pacific acquired Remco and AHI's Child Guidance from Azrak-Hamway .[4] Under Jakks Pacific, the brand was absorbed into its other products.
Toys
1950s
1950s Space Commander Walkie Talkies [5]
1953 Medicine Chest
1955 Big Max (magnetic robot that picked off iron slugs from battery operated conveyor belt and placed them into slots)
1957 Firebird 99 battery powered dashboard game.
1957 Pom Pom Gun, battery powered double-barrel cannon.
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)[6]
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 )
1959 Yankee Doodle Secret Rocket Test Center [7]
1960s
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
1961 Baby Laugh-A-Lot
1962 Fascination Pool Game
1962 Arthur Showboat Theater Playset
1962 Littlechap
Dolls
1962 Caravelle Radio Transmitter and Receiver[8]
1963 Barracuda Submarine
1963 USMC Bazooka
1963 Super Car
1964 Mr.Kelly's Car Wash
1964 Beatles
Figures
1964 Hamilton Invaders
1964 Project Yankee Doodle
1964 Monkey Division
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson Doll
1964 Senator Barry Goldwater Doll
1964 Blippo Building Blocks
1964 Munsters
1965 Bulldog Army Tank
1965 Duffy's Daredevils
1965 Kennedy Airport Air Traffic Control Center
1966 Batman Wrist Radios
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 (4.7 ft long)
1969 Baby Sister Grow-A-Tooth
1969 Pan Am Dual Control Jet Cockpit
1969 Kitty Karry-All (The Brady Bunch)
1969 Tru-Smoke Trucks[9]
1969 Tumbling Tom Boy Doll
1969 Frustration Ball[10]
1970s
1980s
1980 Universal Monsters
Figures
1981 Dukes of Hazzard
1982 Warrior Beasts figures
1982 Sgt. Rock
for DC
1982 Warlord for DC
1983 Crystar for Marvel Comics[12]
1984 Conan Action Figures
1984 Mighty Crusaders Action Figures
1984 Zybots
1985 AWA Remco Action Figures
Wrestling Figures
1985 Firffels The "Original" Two-feature Creature
1986 Karate Kid Action Figures
[13]
1987 My Sweet 16 Play Cosmetics
1990s
References
. Retrieved 2023-06-09 .
^ "You Can Tell It’s Mattel… It’s Swell!" , Tim Forbes, American Heritage
^ "Star Trek" . The Toys that Made Us . 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2020 .
^ https://www.facebook.com/greg.hatala.3 (2013-12-10). "Made in Jersey: Remco Toys - remote control toys were 'controlled' nearby in NJ" . nj . Retrieved 2023-06-08 . ; CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link )
^ Coopee, Todd. "Space Commander Walkie Talkies from Remco" . ToyTales.ca .
^ "The Magic Market" , Time , Dec. 14, 1959
^ Coopee, Todd. "Yankee Doodle Secret Rocket Test Center from Remco (1959)" . ToyTales.ca .
^ Coopee, Todd. "Caravelle Radio Transmitter and Receiver" . ToyTales.ca .
^ Coopee, Todd. "Mini Tru-Smoke Diesel Mod-Pad Carrier from Remco" . ToyTales.ca .
^ Coopee, Todd. "Frustration Ball from Remco" . ToyTales.ca .
^ Coopee, Todd. "Mister Brain, the Tru-Smoke Robot" . ToyTales.ca .
^ Coopee, Todd. "The Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior from REMCO (1982)" . ToyTales.ca .
^ Coopee, Todd. "The Karate Kid from Remco (1986)" . ToyTales.ca .
^ Katty Zion, "Steel Tec" , Katty Zion
External links