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The Tonka fire truck from 1956 to 1959 is my favorite Tonka. I have been looking for a suitable Tonka fire truck to restore for a long time. Today I finally completed this vintage 1956 fire truck restoration project. The Tonka company was founded in the late 1940s by three men as a small garden-implement business run out of a school basement in Mound Minnesota. It was originally called the Mound Metalcraft Company. They started off first by making real full size steam shovels and cranes, but at one point decided to try metal toys as a side project, and in just one year the company was selling a lot of little toy trucks. Following this initial success they switched focus entirely to making toys and changed the company name to Tonka, from the Dakota Sioux word tanka, meaning “Big“. Their first pickup truck was created in 1955, and they released their famous Mighty Dump Truck in 1965, which later became the company’s best selling toy in its history. Today Tonka is owned by Hasbro, but still h
