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Maisto

Maisto International, Inc.
Private
Industry Model Cars
Founded July 10, 1967
Headquarters Fontana, California United States
Key people
Ngan family, Founder
P. Y. Ngan, CEO
Number of employees
47
Parent May Cheong Group
Website www.maisto.com

Maisto International Inc. is a global toy brand marketed worldwide and part of the May Cheong Group. Though the brand is now headquartered in California, its origins and main company are in Hong Kong. Maisto mainly manufactures die-cast models of automobiles, aircraft, and motorcycles. The company has manufactured a number of Tonka products under license from Hasbro. It also now owns the former Italian Bburago and Polistil brand names.

In the 1980s, Maisto became well known as a diecast vehicle producer after a business conglomeration of May Tat Toy (Mainly motorcycles), May Cheong (MC Toy - which produced smaller vehicles), and Maisto. Through the 1990s, Maisto was considered the US division of Master Toy Co. Ltd. of Thailand with May Cheong being the Kowloon, Hong Kong, subsidiary (Johnson 1998, 119).

The May Cheong Group is based in Hong Kong and their products are made in China and Thailand (Rixon 2005, 64). The factories in China and Thailand manufacture 1:12, 1:18, 1:24, 1:25, 1:27, 1:43, 1:31 and 1:64 scale replicas. Most models are officially licensed products, based on popular vehicles. Others, however, are fantastical rod and custom creations more in line with the Hot Wheels formula. The US warehouse and distribution center, aka Maisto International, Inc, is located in Fontana, California.

In 2005 the May Cheong Group acquired the assets of the famous Italian brand Bburago. Later, Maisto also obtained the Polistil name, another well-known Italian scale model manufacturer that had previously gone bankrupt.

Maisto gained popularity around 1990, mainly competing in 1/18 scale with Italian Bburago, Polistil and the more expensive - and often more spotty Franklin Mint Precision Models. By 2000, a whole host of companies like Yatming, Ertl, and even Mattel's Hot Wheels had entered the larger scale 1:18 fray. Especially since Bburago failed (being now a part of May Cheong itself), no other company overall has been able to compete with Maisto at the larger scale, except perhaps Jada Toys. Even so, the 1:18 scale market is not as prevalent as it was. Circa 2010, 1:24 is still popular, but the larger scales have waned in retail stores.


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