Saturday, April 1, 2023

Bronco Cryptozoology #14: The Tonka Broncos

Cryptozoology is the study of mythical creatures that may or may not exist.

This applies to Broncos how? Well, there is a lot of mystery and myths surrounding certain Bronco models and specialty-built Broncos.

So, this new segment at the blog will focus on these prototypes, one of a kind, special editions and the most historical Broncos ever built.

To keep the posts short, we will include only a brief story of each

We will try to separate fact from fiction and possibly come up with more questions than answers.

At first, I was going to compile this into one post, but it got waaay too long. 



The Tonka Truck was created in 1946 in Mound Minnesota and in 1976 they were celebrating their 30th anniversary.

They asked Ford if they could work together on a special edition Bronco to commemorate their upcoming anniversary. They wanted to make a miniature Bronco toy and Ford to build a Tonka themed Bronco.

The miniature Broncos would be given away with the purchase of the real Broncos and also sold in stores.

The Baja Bronco Program had just ended (with the 1975 model) and Ford was actually looking for new opportunities to market the bobtail.

Ford had no time to waste and immediately began working on the project. 

They faced obstacles right away, Ford did not have the correct shade of yellow paint and Tonka would not give the paint code to Ford for fear that it might fall into a competitor's hands (like the Coke or KFC recipe I guess??). 

In addition, the Ford marketing team was unhappy with the designs produced by the toy company. The complaint was that the toys didn't resemble a Bronco closely enough that someone might confuse them with the International Scout II. The worst part was that the clock was ticking, they needed the program finalize by the end of March 1976.

In the meantime, Ford designers came up with a color called "Solar Yellow" that closely matched the Tonka hue. The tops and grills would be Raven Black, matching the black interior.

The Broncos would be factory equipped with a tow hitch, heavy duty springs, fender flares and large lugged tires to help them resemble a Tonka Truck.

During the time Ford was working on the project (and looking for a shop to modify the Broncos), there was a change in leadership at Tonka and the new President kyboshed the whole project, stating that there was "bad blood" between the two companies and neither one trusted the other.

Tonka ended up building a "Bronco like SUV" toy and the unit looked nothing like a Bronco. It actually looked more like a shortened Chevy K-5 Blazer.




Over at Ford 23 of these special paint and decor Ranger model Broncos had been built and were waiting to be shipped to a yet unnamed off-road shop for modifications. They were never modified beyond the special paint. 

The Broncos were sold to dealers throughout the country and few, if any, people outside of Dearborn even knew about the failed project.







 

I hope you liked the story, as it was pure fiction, well most of it. The Bronco pictured above is a 1976 Ranger, and Tonka did celebrate their 30th anniversary that year, but there was never a special Tonka edition Bronco......at least not that I know of.

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